Curious Boy

To paraphrase H.A. & Margret Rey, “This is the boy. He is a good little monster, and always very curious”. He's at that age, where everything, and I mean everything, needs an explanation. “Why? Where? Who? How come? What?” come out of his mouth constantly. And did I mention Why?

I know that it's how he processes the world around him, and he needs answers to make sense of everything. So most of the time I try and give him serious answers to the questions. Sometimes when we're all in a silly mood, we get silly answers, like “zed” when we're asked “why”, which then leads into singing the alphabet. Sadly though, that doesn't stop the question, so we have to answer it at some point. It's nice in one way that he still believes that we have all the answers.

It's funny to me that he also likes to question choices we make. If we're playing restaurant or office (or any one of his hundreds of other make-believe games), and he gives you an option, when you give your reply, he then asks why you chose that one! Not only does he question choices, he also questions actions “Mummy, why did you put your left clicker on?” when I'm driving. Or “Mummy, why did that lady get up and leave” when we're at Kindergym.

This means I spend a lot of my day answering questions. Sometimes, I admit to making answers up, especially if he's asking about other people or their motives. Other times, I have to bite my tongue not to reply 'because', even if the questions have been going on and on and on. So now, I've decided he gets real answers. If the question stream starts going on for ever (and any other parents of toddlers know exactly what I mean) he now gets serious answers.

So when he asked the other day why I referred to hubby and his brother as “daddies” not “daddy” he got a lesson in plurals. Gravity, and an explanation about physics was called for when we were talking about things falling from the sky. When he asked why he had to wear his seat belt, after a few other tries, I told him it was mandatory, and then explained what mandatory meant.

This approach seems to be working at the moment. The more 'grown up' answers give him pause for thought and seem to satisfy him. So even if he doesn't completely understand the answer he knows we're not fobbing an easy answer off on him, and that seems to help the questions stop. And it means that I get to feel like I'm having a adult conversation (even if it's for just a few minutes),which is always a nice thing. There is a downside to this though, I think that as the boy gets older I'm going to have to start doing research as his questions get harder and harder! For now I'll just enjoy being seen as the source of all knowledge. Until I can't answer something.