Question time – questions from a 4 year old

Anyone with a 4 year old knows that this is the age that questions are coming thick and fast.  It’s never ending, I have no idea what prompts some of them.  I’d love to know how their minds actually work.

N’s always been a bit of a talker (wonder where he gets that from?!), so it shouldn’t really be a surprise that all day he’s chatting, singing and asking numerous questions.  Some are obvious and easy to answer, others aren’t easy to understand, let alone answer.

I thought I’d share some of his recent blinders in our own version of Question Time!

Why do daffodils die?

Well, why do they?  Hmmm.  This was, I presume, prompted by the browning and decomposing daffodil leaves remaining on the divide between our lawn and his Gramps’.

I had to vaguely explain the life cycle of a plant (I was never good at biology because I found plants boring but I think I could manage this one).

Why’s the off button there?

N’s started getting interested in taking photos, and that means learning about buttons and what they do.  But why he needed to know the placement of the off button I have no idea.  It wasn’t in the way, and he didn’t keep switching it off by accident.

My answer: it has to go somewhere, and that was the best place for it.  Poor answer, but really I didn’t have anything to say, and it’s not going to really help his knowledge in future!

How do mummies and daddies stop having a baby?

Up until recently, N’s never been concerned or questioning about babies.  They’re just there and I’ve had no questions. But with 2 key workers (although one’s moved nursery room now) both pregnant, babies have obviously been more top of mind.  We’ve already had the discussion about how babies are made from a mummy’s egg and a seed from a daddy joining together and growing into a baby.  But I wasn’t expecting him to ask how mummies and daddies stop having babies.

My answer:

Some mummies and daddies can’t have babies, if their bodies don’t work, and there’s no eggs or seeds, or they don’t join up and grow.  Others just can’t have them, so they choose not to have babies. Not all adults want to have babies.

How did they drive in the olden days?

There’s been some very odd questions and obsession with the olden days.  I’m struggling because I’ve no idea how far back olden days is.  Is it medieval, tudor, 1950s, or when I was a child?  It makes it really hard.

So I’ve just been talking about pre-cars. This confuses N, the concept of a time before cars.

‘So, did people drive lorries instead?’

‘No, there were no lorries or vans, or motorbikes.  Some olden days didn’t even have bikes.  They had to use a horse and cart’.

What happened if mummy had a baby in her tummy and the house wasn’t built?

N obviously has pregnancy on the mind.  This was a really random question, and not one that I quite grasped.  The more I asked him to clarify, the more confused the question got.  He then threw in about the olden days, and where mummies could live.

I ended up telling him that most mummies and daddies have a house before a baby arrives.  If they don’t have a house, then they sometimes get help from somewhere else to find somewhere to live.  But most people don’t build a house while they’re waiting for a baby to come.

Thankfully, N’s usually pretty accepting of my answers.  Sometimes he asks me questions about things that could be in encyclopedias or online, but when I suggest we look up the answers, he’s never that fussed.

When the questions have got too much, I have tried turning the question back on him.  But N’s not impressed with that.  His comment:

‘Don’t ask me silly questions, Mummy’.

What random questions have your children been asking recently?