Friday, April 16, 2010

Questions from the back seat

The offspring have reached an enchanting new stage of life.. they have really honest, deep questions about the world around them. And their favorite time to ask is right after school, on the way home after Mommy's long day of work.

 To truly understand the quality of response they get, please imagine yourself being verbally pummeled in tag team style after a 9 hour work day that involved answering 15, 000 questions, running 2 meetings, managing the behavior of 35 children that are not your own, teaching subject matter for 4 hours, planning for 3 different subjects, answering 17 e mails, meeting with the boss regarding 2 critical matters, and listening to 3 co workers vent about their personal problems.  And that's a fairly normal day. I don't say that for sympathy. You simply need to know that I'm not in top form to answer these stumpers.

Here is a sampling of questions from the back seat that I recall from the last 2 months:

1. Where do babies come from?
2. Why do we pay taxes?
3. What is 3 +3+3++6+2+112+5+6 -4 divided by 3?
4. Why do we have to fill up the car with gasoline instead of something else?
5. Can I have a snack?
6. Are babies sinners?
7. What does the government do?
8. Is President Obama a good President?
9. Why does Uncle James have 6 kids and you only have 2?
10. When are we getting a baby sister like Matthew and Ethan got?
11. Do you like XBox or Wii more?
12. Are we ever going to fly on a plane?
13. How do you start a business?
14. How many people can I blow up when I join the Army?
15. Why do we get to eat nuggets and fries if they aren't really good for us?
16. If you had to live without chocolate or coffee, which would you choose?
17. If Jesus loves everyone, how come everyone doesn't love Him?
18. When I'm 16 can I drive Dad's truck?
19. Why doesn't Purple go to church with us?
20. How long until I can get married?


Now go back and reread and try to think of an answer after you run a half marathon. 

That's the kind of response I tend to give.  Which leads me to all kinds of guilt about not being a good enough Mom and spending quality time with my kids, and training them for the future. And while YOU, gentle reader, might give me grace and say "Honey, no one expects you to be able to answer that at that those times." my children have other thoughts. See, they still see me at The MOM, all powerful, all knowing, and completely faithful to meet their needs. They don't yet know that I am frail and more than a little imperfect and I don't have every answer. When I tell them "I don't know" they chuckle and think/say "yeah, right, you know, you just don't want to tell us." So, what's a girl to do? Delegate, of course!

Now, dear internet friends, which one would you like to answer?? Please, give me your best, so I can have it ready if they ever start to repeat.

1 comments:

Kim said...

haha... I'll take an easy one! "When I'm 16, can I drive Dad's truck?" Yes! When you are 16 it will be paid off and we will be ready for a new one, so it will be your "new" car!

Love the kid questions.

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