Saturday 6 September 2014

Why?

We have finally entered the "Why?" phase.  The fact that this didn't happen until Munchkin could talk in full sentences hasn't made it any less frustrating.  My friend's little boy is a month older than Munchkin and she has tended to do things a month or so after him, but not on this occasion.  I was vaguely worried that she was developmentally slow, but secretly pleased I didn't have to deal with it.

I am currently dealing with around seven "whys" a day, excluding the supplementary ones.  I wouldn't mind but I find them so difficult to answer.  The answers I give are often met with a "why?".  We still haven't established why there are big and small roads, and why weeds are so called.

We were driving home from swimming yesterday when Munchkin asked me why we had to drive round the roundabout.  I explained at great length that roundabouts allowed cars to drive onto different roads more easily, otherwise we would never be able to get from the small roads (single carriageways) onto the big roads (dual carriageways).  As a result of this, she asked me why there were big roads and small roads.  I told her that big roads were for getting from one town to another and people usually lived on small roads, but I'm not convinced she was satisfied with that answer.
Image courtesy of iamharin freedigitalphotos.net

I was doing some weeding yesterday, when she asked me what I was doing.  I explained that I was pulling up weeds like Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig.  This is going to be easy, I thought, I just say what Grandpa Pig did.  Grandpa Pig said that weeds were naughty plants that grew where they weren't meant to.  The next thing I know, I've been asked why Grandpa doesn't like weeds, and why he says "weeds".  After trying to explain that they were called weeds because that was their name, I gave up.  Every time I tried to use a comparison, it resulted in another question.

You would think that as a Business Analyst, who spends my working days asking, "Why", "What", When" and "How", I would welcome this but it's making me use my brain more at home than I do at work.  I'm used to adapting my communication style for the business area or IT but now I'm having to think like a toddler. WHY?