I'm glad my Chickie is so inquisitive.
Really, I am.
But she's at the age when she hasn't yet figured out that Mommy isn't omniscient. And so she asks question after question, many of which I just don't know the answers to.
Yesterday we were driving home from Costco, and I had on the local talk radio station, which she usually ignores. Except when she doesn't. The host was talking about a local story that, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best story for little ears to hear. Recently someone had a party at their apartment, and the poorly-built balcony collapsed with over 20 people on it. There weren't any life-threatening injuries, but a woman whose leg was broken has filed a lawsuit against the property owner (probably the first of many lawsuits.)
And the questions began. I won't even insert my answers in here; I want to finish writing this blog post before next week. I also won't include all the questions that Chickie asked; I don't have that much memory capacity in my brain. But here's a sampling....
"She broke her leg?"
"How did she break her leg?"
"Did she have to go to the hospital?"
"What happened?"
"Do we have a porch?"
"Did she fall on someone?"
"Did everyone there break their foot?"
"Is this (pointing to her ankle) a bone?""
"Was she a girl or a boy?"
"Where did it happen?"
"Was it here?"
"Why was it kind of far away?"
Finally I said, "Chickie, I'm not going to answer any more questions about this."
"What about questions about other things?"
I paused for a moment, considering that, then responded, "I'm sorry, but I just need to not answer any questions for a couple of minutes."
"What's a couple of minutes?"
I'm glad my sweet Chickie is so inquisitive.
(Said through clenched teeth.) Really. I am.
7 comments:
Aiyiyi, Chickie... I think my favorite was "Was she a girl or a boy?" because I seem to remember a similar question from her once before.
I am glad that I'm not the only one who asks her child to stop talking to her for a little bit! Sometimes you feel like you are under assault, but thankfully most of the time it's cool to hear what questions they think to ask.
At least her questions seem more thought out. My youngest cousin used to ask me lots of questions, I'd try to answer them the best I could until the repeated "Why?" question would keep coming up.
Man, oh, man we are in the inquisitive stage too! Sometimes I have mommy guilt over trying to get him not to ask questions, because I know that's part of learning. But sometimes you just need quiet!!
Mom's Dilemma: How to encourage a child's curiosity and understanding of the world without losing your mind! Sometimes the only answer left is "Because I said so!"
Aww Beth. She's a smart one! My 10 yr old daughter is constantly asking questions (she's done it for as far back as I can remember). She really wants to know EVERYTHING! It drives me crazy sometimes but then I think to myself that it's a wonderful thing to have an inquisitive young mind ready to soak up new information. I'm starting to see the same questioning habits from Marisa (also 4- Jan. baby!)
This is a GREAT post! I remember that before Gunny, our first, started talking, thinking, "Oh I just can't wait until I can find out what's going on inside that little mind." And then he began to talk ... and question. THEN I sometimes wished he had an "off" button. And I don't remember being QUITE as anxious for DD to learn to talk ... now knowing that the questions were coming!! :)
But now, I look back on those days fondly. Much less stressful as memories! :)
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