A Plea

I saw this article today (courtesy of Jessica) about how well-meaning scientist parents use their children as research subjects. I thought it was an interesting article, but what most caught my attention was the description about halfway down the first page of how the psychologist Clarence Leuba, "wondering if laughter in response to tickling was learned or innate, forbade tickling of his infant son and daughter, except when he tickled them, wearing a mask to hide his expression."

Which started me thinking, not about the surreality (that's a real word!) of the experiment, but about the unpleasant topic of tickling. Which I personally have long thought a strange and horrible human practice that somehow, bafflingly, gets perpetuated from generation to generation. I started shuddering just thinking about it, and then I couldn't stop thinking about it, and so in order to stop shuddering I had to get my thoughts out to the world, and urge every parent or grandparent or future parent or future grandparent who reads this blog to put an end to childhood torture. For the sake of my future children, and their children, and their children's children.

The problem with tickling is that adults just don't think they're doing anything particularly inhumane. It's just something you do to kids, to make them laugh, and adults like to make children laugh because it's slightly easier and more relaxing than making their adult friends laugh, and it feels good when someone laughs at something you do (at least it is if you do it on purpose to make them laugh). But that means tickling is entirely selfish. Adults do it because it makes them happy, not because it makes their children happy, and the curse of tickling is that even as the child is writhing in agony and wishing for it to stop, the natural human biological reaction to tickling is laughter (Leuba's experiment seemed to prove this), and adults read child laughter to mean, "I like this! Please don't stop!" So not only do adults get pleasure out of the practice, they mistakenly assume their child is enjoying it. 

It's a horrible, tragic communication issue. But it doesn't have to be. No adult I know actually likes being tickled, and we never actually do it to each other, except to be mean. Normally we try to shield our children from unpleasant experiences, and I'm not quite sure why this is the socially acceptable exception. 

I am very passionate about this subject. I think, as a cause, it ranks right up there with educating the masses for tomorrow's mathematical future and ridding the planet of plastic bags. 

You have to find things worth fighting for in this life.