Navied Mahdavian

Op-comic: Humor is a consolation of growing up

By Navied MahdavianGuest Contributor

April 2, 2025 3 AM PT

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The other day, my 5-year-old daughter, Elika, made me belly laugh for the first time.

In that moment I realized, oh, she *is* my daughter.

We see ourselves reflected in our kids, for better or worse.

Before she was born, I made a list of my characteristics, to reflect on who I am as a person.

Children as young as 12 months are able to understand that something is a joke.

But now she can talk, and she is discovering the world and herself, things beyond me.

I remember once watching a boy kick sand at her in a London park.

Kahlil Gibran wrote, "your children are not your children."

But when we're together, we make each other laugh.

Navied Mahdavian is a cartoonist and writer. He is a contributor to the New Yorker and author of the graphic memoir “This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America.”

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