Rediscovering the 'Me' in 'Mumeeeeeee'

'I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife’s badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways'. (Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861)

April 25, 2010

Tough questions


As the mother of a four-and-a-half-year-old (the half is very important by the way), I am at the daily mercy of his very inquiring mind. Random thoughts and profound questions hurled at me over breakfast, when I'm driving, when I'm paying for the shopping, when I'm hanging out the washing. I'm never prepared, and never seem to know the answer! For example:

Do bees do poos? What does their poo look like?
Why can't you see air, but you can feel it?
Why can't you see planets during the daytime?
Are all stars planets?
What does a turtle look like when it's cross? (this is my personal favourite).
What do the army men do?
What makes a cloud?
How does electricity work?
How big is Jupiter?
What are those big pipes for at the side of the road?

I should have quick, snappy answers to these questions which give him the information he needs. But I don't. How do you easily explain what army men do? What are the pipes for? Do turtles ever get cross? Are planets stars? (Professor Brian Cox, if you're reading.....)

Then, in the car the other day, he piped up with this: "Mummy, I will have to leave the house when I am a daddy, won't I?"

Wow. I was banking on having at least another 18 years or so before even starting to think about that. So, I reassured him that all of that was a long, long way off, told him a brief story about mummy meeting daddy and having him and Sam and suggested he have a look at his Ben 10 magazine.

His next question: "But who will be the mummy if I am the daddy?"

Now, that is one question I definitely don't know the answer to!

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14 comments:

  1. It is such an inquiring age, I often answer with "what do you think"? We also got some children books that are great to help from The Book People (well they were for christmas).

    Both my boys have picked their wifes (thats because they cant have me)! Really sweet

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  2. Oh you really had me laughing at this one Hazel. I can so identify with it. They're just so full of curiosity at that age, aren't they? I hope you're off googling bees poo and facial expressions of turtles!! Lovely post as usual. I really enjoyed it. Maria x

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  3. LOL!!! oh Kids..you made me smile this morn

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  4. Love the "Do bees do poos" one! I'm going to have to google that one...

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  5. Bless him. That's a sign of an enquiring mind. He'll do well. My daughter never asked me any of those questions. It has worried me that she hasn't actually.

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  6. Lol @turtles being angry. @rosiescribble all children develop at different times and i'm sure she'll be fine. Mini-me (3 and a half) recently asked how she got in my tummy, I had no answer and suggested she continue reading her Dora magazine... :-/

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  7. Aww, so cute! Great questions too!

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  8. What intelligent questions for a four and a half year old! Why doesn't Daddy answer some of these mind boggling inquiries. As far as I've always been told "the apple never falls far from the tree"! When I didn't know the answers I nearly always invented them. Great fun! (Maybe thats the reason my children grew up with some very "funny ideas"

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  9. I think my girls will also have funny ideas as I have been known to walk through the park telling my youngest (2) that she can't keep stones as pets they don't like it....
    Fart and poo questions are the ones that are the favoured ones by my 6 yo at the moment!!
    BNMx

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  10. Hazel - I love this! I too get bombarded with these types of questions and I used to make up something that sounded kind-of feasible, but now that James is almost 9, making things up that he might repeat in class or to his mates as "my mum said..." just no longer 'cuts the mustard' as the old saying goes.

    I now say, "I don't know...let's go home and look it up on the Internet", and sometimes we actually do ... :-)

    Nat x

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  11. The single most off-the-wall question Sally ever asked was in the car on the way back from York in the middle of winter, in the dark... 'Do bees have ears?' she asked, apropos of absolutely nothing!

    I still don't know the answer...

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  12. By the way, have you come across the New Scientist book, Does Anything Eat Wasps? That provides some of the answers!

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  13. Widget (also 4 and a half) wants to know why he cannot marry his best friend Ryan.
    How do you explain the concept of civil partnership, gay rights and same-sex marriages to a child this age?

    LCM x

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  14. LOL. The one with the bee poo is my favourite. So. What does it look like?

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