Have you ever been really stuck when your pre-schooler asks you a question (usually in the supermarket queue when everyone else is listening)?
The basic rule is to be honest about what you know and don't know. If you haven't got a clue, say, "What a very interesting question. Hmmm - I'm going to have to look it up" - which at least gives you enough time to Google it.
Remember, too, that the odd bit of truth-stretching is OK. If this makes you feel guilty, get hold of a copy of Andrew Riley's Great Lies to Tell Small Kids, Hodder & Stoughton, £8.99.
Why are you drinking wine, Mummy? Because wine makes Mummy clever...
Have you ever been really stuck when your Tricky toddler talk
- Why do stars twinkle?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Um…so they look pretty. And if they didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to see them in the dark, would you?”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughrful answer:</strong> According to Glenn Murphy in<span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span><a href="http://www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/product/124324/sm-why-is-snot-green.html" target="_blank">Why Is Snot Green?, Macmillan, £5.99,</a> they only appear to twinkle. In fact, they’re burning clearly and brightly. But we’re looking at them through the churning murky gases of our atmosphere.</p>
- Why can't I have juice now?<p> <strong>The quick answer: </strong>“Because I said so.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer:</strong> "You can drink whatever you like at mealtimes. But in between meals, you can’t have anything other than water. Otherwise you’re covering your teeth in sugar all the time. And teeth don’t like being covered in sugar. It can make them go black and wobbly and fall out."</p>
- Why is the sky blue?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Um…so that it matches the sea.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer:</strong> "Air molecules are, in fact, slightly bluish. And while we’re at it, the sea isn’t blue because it’s reflecting the sky, whatever you may have been taught. Water isn’t colourless either - it’s also slightly blue."</p>
- Why does the rain die?<p> <strong>The quick anwser:</strong> “Er…because it needs to give the sunshine a turn.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer: "</strong>It doesn’t really die, because rain keeps happening. There’s water in the air all around us, and as air rises it gets colder, and then the cold air just can’t hold all the water any more. So the water falls back down to the ground as rain."</p>
- Why is a dog a dog?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Well, it couldn’t be a tiger, could it, or it would have to have stripes.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer:</strong> A huge and difficult question, but you could talk about how there are lots of different kinds of animals because the world has hot countries and cold countries and jungles and deserts and ice and snow, and animals have lots of different ways of getting enough food to eat. Dogs have sharp teeth and a good sense of smell because they used to have to survive (before tins of dog food) by hunting.</p>
- Why does ironing make things go flat?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Because it’s squashed against the ironing board.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer: </strong>"Because an iron is hot and heavy. The heat makes the links between the little molecules in the material a bit looser, and then the weight of the iron straightens them out." (And a molecule, if they ask, is two or more atoms, and an atom is the tiniest thing in the world that everything’s made from. But it may be more useful to explain to your pre-schooler that daddies should iron as often as mummies.)</p>
- Why is that lady so fat?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Ssshh! Don’t be rude! She might hear you!”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer:</strong> "People are all sorts of different shapes and sizes. That’s what makes us so interesting. The important thing is to keep ourselves fit - and that means lots of good food and plenty of running and jumping and dancing, because exercise keeps our hearts healthy."</p>
- Why can't I take my clothes off?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Because it’s rude.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer: </strong>Another difficult one, because lots of pre-schoolers like ripping their clothes off. You’ve got to tread the line between saying that being naked is fine because all bodies are lovely, but that it’s not always practical to strip off. (Naked in the bath is sensible, but naked in the snow is silly because you’ll get cold and ill.) You could add that generally people don’t take their clothes off when visitors come round, which might be a good thing to explain before Granny comes to stay at Easter. For more ideas on how to answer questions like these, get hold of a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ask-Your-Father-Questions-Children/dp/1906021619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328007586&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Emma Cook’s Ask Your Father, Short Books, £8.99.</a></p>
- Where did the dinosaurs go?<p> <strong>The quick answer:</strong> “Er…they just got old and died.”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer:</strong> Glenn Murphy in <a href="http://www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/product/124324/sm-why-is-snot-green.html" target="_blank">Why Is Snot Green?, Macmillan, £5.99,</a> comes to the rescue: "Dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, probably because a huge meteorite destroyed the world they lived in. But one group called therapods survived, and over the course of millions of years turned into birds. So not all dinosaurs died off completely…"</p>
- Why don't girls have willies?<p> <strong>The quick answer: </strong>“Um…because they wee from a different place. Now why don’t we go and get an ice-cream?”</p> <p> <strong>The thoughtful answer:</strong> Go on. Be brave: "Boys and men have willies and girls and women have something different". (That no one can quite bear to name. But the sooner you find a word for it – please, please, not ‘front bottom’ – the easier your life will be).</p>
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