Question of the Day--er, of Every Second: WHY?!

If you are a parent and have yet to hear “Why?  Why?  Why?!” a thousand times a day, chances are your child has yet to reach this critical but exasperating stage.  My son hit the ‘why’ stage around 3 years old.  My daughter, wanting to be just like her big brother, decided to follow suit during the throes of the terrible twos.  With my children only 16 months apart, you can believe that during the thick of it, my days were jammed full of why’s!

From morning to night, my life consisted of a multitude of questions, all starting or consisting entirely of why:

• Why, why, why?!
• Why do birds fly?
• Why do dogs bark?
• Why can’t cats bark?
• Why do we eat?
• Why do we sleep?
• Why is it dark?
• Why are there people?
• Why do we wear clothes?

Not wanting to be like my parents, I hoped to never resort to the age old frustrated parent answer, ‘Because I said SO!’  However, after hours and hours of questioning from the ‘why’ squad and quite a number of consequential but-why’s, I found myself guilty of this answer on many occasions.  (Although, for those of you who haven’t reached this stage yet, be forewarned this answer rarely works!  It’s usually followed immediately by a thousand more but-why’s.)

I have always been glad that my children are curious and inquisitive by nature.  It has allowed them to learn things easily and to expand their minds quickly.  Nonetheless, I can’t lie.  I am more than relieved that they are through the worst of the ‘why’ stage and now choose their questions more carefully and thoughtfully.  I much rather deal with the off-the-wall questions (e.g., 'can belly buttons fall off?' or 'if broccoli is alive, why doesn’t it scream when we bite it?').  As crazy as they are, at least these questions don’t come with a legion of but-why’s as back up!