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10 joyful things that will make even the most cynical kid smile

10 joyful things that will make even the most cynical kid smile

No matter how down your kid is right now, these joyful things will perk them right up. That’s the idea anyway!

Ugh, kids are so CYNICAL these days, aren’t they? Or am I sounding 105 years old right now? I actually remember feeling SO JADED when I was a teen. Like I was the only person alive who could see how nauseatingly BORING life was. Well, me and my friends. We got it.

If you’ve got a tween or teen sulking around the house (🙋 x 3), I’ve got just the thing. Ten joyful things that are guaranteed to put a smile on their cynical dial. Hope they give you a bright new smile, too. These here are challenging times…

10 joyful things

1. Stand here for dance party

Thank you Pip Lincolne for unearthing this gem. Readers, if you haven’t signed up for Pip’s Something Good Everyday newsletter, I urge you to do so. Dance parties are just the beginning of the sweet fun this joyful lady unearths.

2. Tom Daley doing anything

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Tom Daley (@madewithlovebytomdaley)

Especially diving and knitting. This guy is joy personified and so contagious. Have a ball of wool and needles ready to go!!

3. Their own chocolate pud

Bill Granger's self-saucing chocolate puddings

No sharing needed. This chocolate pudding is super easy to make, plus it produces its own hot chocolate fudge sauce that is the absolute BIZ with ice cream. 

4. This 75-year-old gent does ballet

Bernard Bibby took up tap dancing to force himself to socialise after he lost his wife of 55 years. Tap dancing led the former electrician to try ballet, and a new great love was born. Bernard’s story is an excellent reminder that bending (quite literally) stereotypes to suit what you truly love is always a good idea.

5. Judgy music choices

The Pudding will judge your musical tastes via your Spotify. You can also find out what kind of a musical bubble you are trapped in.

6. Seal show at Taronga Zoo

It’s simply not possible to watch a seal flopping around on land or being so elegant in the water and not beam from ear to ear. These guys have got skillz!

7. Donkey nannies

Speaking of especially cute animal antics, how about these donkey nannies in Italy? Each year in Italy, grazing animals are moved from high pastures down to the plains. Newborn lambs are unable to make this journey on their own so they ride in the saddle of a donkey or mule nanny. They are taken down at rest stops and returned to their mothers for a bite to eat and a bit of nuzzling.

8. This house

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Car Pintos (@carpintos)

Who said houses had to be one colour? Hopefully your kids won’t decide to paint your facade floral after seeing this, but what a lovely place to come home to each day!

9. A flying baby

I don’t think they quite expected it would work!

10. Lachlan doing star jumps

Things to make you smile

Even if you didn’t catch a single episode of Beauty and the Geek, this will make you laugh and laugh. Could Lachlan be the most uncoordinated person in the world? And so delightful with it!