What's the most difficult answer you've had to give a young child?

[Smilin]

A rather weird situation I had to face yesterday.  My 5 year old in kindergarten came home yesterday sad.  I asked why so glum?  In his own wondering way,,,he simply stated that his class didn't pray together at lunchtime.  You see, last year we had him in a Christian environment pre-school where they regularly prayed together as a group.  He couldn't understand why his class at school didn't pray. 

 

[VOW]

I have this memory engraved in my brain:

It was early morning. The kids and I are in the car. I'm driving them to daycare on my way to work. I'm in a very crowded, confusing freeway interchange, concentrating on merging traffic and trying to NOT get my pockets knocked off in the process.

My daughter is 5; my son is 2-1/2.

From the back seat, my daughter calls out, loud and clear:

"Mom, where do babies come from?"

OhMY!


Peace be with you,
~VOW

 

[Lynn]

"Why did Uncle Mark kill himself?"

 

[Million Pieces]

"Why did the planes hit those buildings? Were they lost?"

Lynn - that's a hard one to explain to an adult, let alone a child.

 

[lucypevensie]

edited by poster

 

[Phoebe]

After my grandmother had died, we were at her house. (grandpa was there) My niece asked, "where's Gee- Gee?" (what we called my grandma) I was so choked up, I couldn't even answer! Her younger sister did, however. She just replied, "she's in heaven with God."
Both of these children had gone to the funeral. I think my niece was just so used to seeing her, she'd forgotten that she had passed on.

 

[Million Pieces]

A little girl who isn't even mine stunned me once. I was at a funeral of a baby boy, Josiah, who had died of SIDS, and my baby was in the church nursery, and this tiny girl in the next crib was the dead baby's sister. Mine started to cry. She looked up at me and asked, "Baby Josiah cryin'?"

My kids used to play with my mom's little dog, Tuffy. Well, poor Tuffy went to the great kennel in the sky, and for DAYS my kids kept asking when Tuffy was coming home from being dead.

 

[ServantOfTheLord]

These are all very hard. I find the hardest for me are when the kids (5 & 9) ask why family members who say they are Christians continually act in hateful, unloving, inconsiderate and selfish ways.

Also, my kids do OK if I do not allow them to watch/listen to/read things that non-Christian kids do until they see these "Christian" family members doing it then they have alot of trouble understanding.

In His Service,

Sandy

 

[angelnstix]

"Why did my brother die?" We lost our son to cancer...he was only 3. We have a 6 year old son and a 11 year old daughter and that had to be the hardest question ever. How do you answer that one when you don't even have the answers yourself????? We miss him so much.

 

[lovespeace]

My son asked me, If Jesus can come back from the dead, why can't Grandpa?

 

[Violet]

My eight year old daughter asked me yesterday "What is rape?"

 

[karla]

This was more of a statement than a question, but out of ht eblue my 4 yr. old told me that she didn't want to die and I told her that it isn't something that she should worry about, but that when you die you get to be with God and that is like the greatest thing ever. I then asked her why she was thinking about that and she responded "because I don't want to have nails in my hands and feet and be on a cross". We got into a pretty good conversation after that.

 

[desi]

When Jesus comes back will grandma get out of that box.-3yr old daughter at wife's mom's funeral.

 

[Momzilla]

My toughest so far has been explaining the death of one of our cats. I was talking to my 3 year old about it, and he said, "She can't meow anymore?" I nearly lost it.

 

[Andry]

1. Are Storm Troopers Clone Troopers gone bad?

2. Why is gas so expensive?

3. Why is everything green with night vision goggles?


My son's 4. Anybody care to answer?

 

[Hatsumi]

1. Are Storm Troopers Clone Troopers gone bad?

2. Why is gas so expensive?

3. Why is everything green with night vision goggles?


My son's 4. Anybody care to answer?

I can't answer the first one.

For the second one, I would say that gas is expensive because it's made from oil, and the oil comes mostly from other countries who aren't always willing to "share."

For the third one, I would say that all living creatures are warm, and night vision goggles can "see" how warm something is. For examples of "seeing" heat, point out heat waves coming off cars or the red coil on a stovetop or in an oven.

As for my "difficult" answers..... there have been many. The most recent was when my 12 yo and I were watching a documentary called "Days that Shook the World." This particular DVD covers 1980-1999. It brought up the discovery of the AIDS virus in 1984. My son knows the basics about sex, but he asked me why AIDS was so prevalent in the gay community at first. That was fun.

When my younger boy was about 4, he asked me why there are jails. I started off by explaining that sometimes, some people do really bad things (then I paused to think).....

And he interjected with, "like littering?" Sooo innocent!

 

[EmSchmem]

I'm not a parent YET (trying!) but I just had a miscarriage a few weeks ago and was baby sitting last night. I knew the 10 year old was DYING to ask me questions but didn't want to make me sad either. Somehow we got talking about the weird things that happen to our bodies when we're prego and she looked at me and went "ARE YOU OK!?!?!" And then she said she doesn't understand why it happens. She what was I gonig to tell her becuase I certainly don't know. I told her what I did know and told her that noonw really knows why and yes it is a really bad really sad thing but how that baby's life probably would have been really bad and really painful and this is God's way of providing me with healthy babies. You know what, telling her that made me actually believe it for the first time since it happened. You could tell she was really worried about me and had been praying about me. AS hard as it was, I think It's the best I've felt since the miscarriage.

 

[EJO]

My daughter (at the age of three) made the observation once when my bride was prego with #3

"there is a baby in there, how did it get there?"

Without missing a beat I said, " I put it there."

My wife still has not let me off on that one....

ejo

 

[angelnstix]

I'm not a parent YET (trying!) but I just had a miscarriage a few weeks ago and was baby sitting last night. I knew the 10 year old was DYING to ask me questions but didn't want to make me sad either. Somehow we got talking about the weird things that happen to our bodies when we're prego and she looked at me and went "ARE YOU OK!?!?!" And then she said she doesn't understand why it happens. She what was I gonig to tell her becuase I certainly don't know. I told her what I did know and told her that noonw really knows why and yes it is a really bad really sad thing but how that baby's life probably would have been really bad and really painful and this is God's way of providing me with healthy babies. You know what, telling her that made me actually believe it for the first time since it happened. You could tell she was really worried about me and had been praying about me. AS hard as it was, I think It's the best I've felt since the miscarriage.

I am so sorry for your loss. I have had 2 miscarriages and 1 tubal pregnancy. My mom told me it is Gods way of saying it is not meant to be...maybe the my babies had complications..I don't know, but I do share your pain. I also lost my 3 year old son to neuroblastoma. I just want you to know you are not alone and I know how much it hurts to lose a child. No matter how old they are. It hurts. Just keep praying.
God bless you!
Christy

 

[angelnstix]

My daughter (at the age of three) made the observation once when my bride was prego with #3

"there is a baby in there, how did it get there?"

Without missing a beat I said, " I put it there."

My wife still has not let me off on that one....

ejo

That is too funny!!!!!