My daughter went through the “why” phase for a while when she was 3. I do my best to answer them because it’s a fun game. She’s trying to learn, and I’m here to teach her. At one point we got to the topic of our dog and she was like “Why is he a dog”
That one stumped me for a while before I hit her with “because his parents are dogs”. And then she went right for the “who are his parents” and that spun off into questions about dog breeding and how they used to all be wild wolves… It’s fun.
they have unlimited curiosity, and unlimited love and respect for you. they don’t just want to learn they want to hear you talk.
for fucks sake, do not squander that special time.
no one will ever look up to you with such love admiration and respect again.
Treat every question as if it is the most important philosophical question of this generation. Because for them it is. think it out loud, teach them how you think.
They are humans with full human intelligence, just less experience.
hey listen, my 7 yo nephew just asked the other day why we had to spend money to get fake money in games and oh BOY did I have a whole speech ready for that one hehehe
The floor can because of gravity.
What’s gravity?
It is what causes everything to fall down.
Why does it do that?
Because everything weighs something, and the more something weighs, the more it causes other things to be drawn towards it.
Why does that happen?
It’s the way the universe is made. If it weren’t for that, the world wouldn’t exist.
Why wouldn’t the world exist without gravity?
Because without gravity, nothing would stick together.
What is nothing?
Nothing is what you see when you close your eyes, but you’re not there to look at it.
Side note, i’m honestly looking forward to having kids. I cannot wait to have an inquisitive child asking me questions that I could have never thought of myself.
MY MOMMY SAID THE FLOOR MAKES FAT PEOPLE STICK TOGETHER!!
What you’ll discover is that there is often a very weird something behind the question. It is often as important to understand what that thing is as it is to answer the questions. The problem is that you can’t directly ask that lest they shut down.
The problem is that a question like, “how can the floor” might be related in the kiddos mind to something as seemingly unrelated as “why did we eat hamburgers last week?” and if you go down the wrong path, suddenly your kid has a link between hamburgers and orbital motion that doesn’t necessarily link up in any real logical way.
My approach is not to just answer questions, but to help them think through their questions and how they might answer them. No clue if that works.
Mine is just starting to say a couple words and I’m quite excited for these conversations.
Also toddlers:
Me: “Why did you just throw your toy? We don’t throw things in the house.”
Toddler: “Because I needed to.”
Me: “Why did you need to?”
Toddler: “I meant it! Hmph.”
What’s the difference between a duck
A perfect opportunity to explain antagonistic coevolution!
If I were a parent I wouldn’t answer questions like these.
Instead i’d ask “why do you think it is?” and use that as a teaching moment about how to do research and how to test a hypothesis.
“Dada, can you teach me how to read?”
“Figure it out yourself.”
I mean I think i’ll be a more gentle mom than that, but essentially, yeah. Kids are actually super great at learning. If they already show interest in something, they just need support and guidance, not someone to do it for them.
You definitely want to encourage your child to learn independently and be curious, but it’s important to remember they’re starting from a place of knowing absolutely nothing.
I had some friends who thought it was important to let their (very young) kids have agency and basically make all their own decisions, but they had no framework within which to know what choices to make. Their oldest is doing better now, but went through several years of pretty bad anxiety and tantrums, and I have no doubt their technique contributed to this.
This is just an anecdote, I know, but I think kids need to have their questions answered flat out unless you know they either already know the answer or have the tools prepared to figure it out independently
I tend to think if they’re old enough to ask the question they’re old enough to (attempt to) puzzle out the answer. Obviously there can be too much of a good thing, but I think on average most parents hand-hold too much (the ones that aren’t simply neglectful)
Obviously, yes, they need the tools to figure things out - which is why you teach the tools. Teach method instead of memorization.
Yeah again I agree, but I also think once you have a kid you’ll understand that early on they’re largely going to be asking questions to which they have no hope of figuring out an answer, because they’re just beginning to learn to read and know absolutely nothing about the world. Developing curiosity and investigative methods are part of it too, but genuinely only for what is within their grasp, otherwise it can become confusing and frustrating
3 year olds :
Why’s this?
because this that and the other
why’s this?
While you stand on it and never think how can the floor.
The most profound / complex question ever: why?
