The Importance of Being Inquisitive (PQW 4/6/11)

I am the current victim of an inquisition that would make the Spanish of olden days weep and beg for mercy. I am held hostage day in and day out and asked an endless barrage of questions that are sometimes pointless and often times I don’t even know the answers. I am the mother of a 3 year old.

Some of you may feel my pain. You may understand my sigh and prayer for patience as I navigate my day of to-dos and traffic while being bombarded with seemingly unanswerable inquiries concerning the future whereabouts of the truck that went by or the farmer missing from his tractor in a field. A simple “I don’t know” doesn’t seem to work, so I have to invent a purely fictitious account of how the day is spent for people I don’t know and will never meet.

Then there’s the other kinds of questions ranging from “why does it rain?”, “Why is the sky blue?” to “What makes it so airplanes can fly? and “Why is the sun up?”. By the seat of my pants, I have quickly explained the notions of the water cycle, how light works in the electromagnetic color field, aerodynamics and the rotation of the earth. Thank you very much, but it’s all in a day’s work.

Granted, I don’t have to. I could easily tell my son that God made it rain and leave it at that. But if he’s asking questions, that’s my time to teach. God does make it rain and the water cycle is how it happens. It’s important to be inquisitive. It definitely drives me crazy some days, but I just keep answering. I know that if it wasn’t for questions, I wouldn’t know very much at all. 

I have to be ready for the follow up questions after my explanations. After all, this little guy is carrying some big brains. For this reason among many others, I really believe you should have to take a class or get a separate degree just to have children. Just so you have the tools to answer all of these queries. 

I’m very thankful for technology in ways I have never been before. Even my phone has the power of Google right at my finger tips. Many think it’s for business types to use at work, but parents know the real story. It’s so we don’t look like complete idiots in front of our children. So now instead of saying “I stink at math and don’t exactly know how fast you’d have to run before you would take off with your Superman cape on.” I can Google it. All while telling him to stop practicing in the house!