Last week S was doing a puzzle that required him finding young ones of animals. He solved it perfectly well, but he came up with all the following questions…
S (pointing to deer, lion, tiger, bear): All these animals live in the forest. Now I know that deer does not eat meat but a lion and other animals eat meat. So does it mean that a lion can eat it's own cub?
Myself: No, I don't think a lion or a tiger eat their own children. At;east as far as I know, I think that is true.
S: OK, then since a deer and a lion and a tiger and all others live in the same forest, does it mean that a tiger can eat a fawn?
Myself: Yes dear, a tiger can eat a fawn.
S: But that is so bad and cruel. How can the tiger eat baby animals. You don't eat other people's babies. You play with them and take care of them - like how you play with Kamakshi when we go to Meenakshi's house. The fawn's mommy deer will feel so bad.
Myself: But that is exactly how it is, Siddhu. Thats why the fawn should walk very close to the deer and should always listen to their mommy deer. Also, that is the difference between animals and humans; animals cannot talk though they can express but animal mommies take care of their children in a very different way than people…
I went on to explain him more differences between animals and humans, but still…
S: But still a tiger should not kill a fawn, Amma. God will punish the tiger for doing so. Imagine if you killed a puppy because you wanted to eat a hot dog? We don't do that and thats why tigers and lions also should not do that…
Myself: Yes nana, I understand and how nice if the world was like that but because it is not, you should be careful and may be you will understand animal thinking one day ; when you are much bigger. For today, just believe that a tiger or a lion can eat a fawn…
OMG! The questions S asks are throwing me off my legs these days. He is so inquisitive that he forgets to eat his lunch even some days as school…
One fine day during the week of 01/13 he came back from school with his sandwich untouched; that means he just had a small handful of grapes for lunch. And I was so irritated that I yelled at him and gave him the same sandwich for supper.
I was so engrossed in yelling that I did not even ask him why he did not eat his sandwich and then at the end of the day I felt so bad for yelling at him. Sometimes I am just so lost in so many different things that I take out my tension / irritation on my kids for very small misdoings and I HATE MYSELF for that…
Eventually before going to bed, C spoke to S and asked him why he did not eat his lunch. To that he replied saying, "Nana, I have so many questions in my mind and not enough time to ask. If I don't ask my questions how can I clarify my doubts. You keep telling me to ask whatever I can't understand. So I used my lunch time to ask my friend, Versailles, one such question." C asked, "And what was that question, Siddhu?" Siddhu said, "How do you dribble for a really really long time?"
That was the question which led Siddhu to not touch his sandwich at lunch. :-)
Now as parents we don't bother about tiny little whys, whats and hows. But if we want our children to explore the world, embrace the creation and find their way in it; we got to let them question, not just question but question without inhibition as much as they can. Sometimes the questions are very simple and some other times they are more complicated. But answering a child's questions or at least trying to do so increases our understanding of this world that we inhabit…
I grew up in a conservative family and hence was limited to how much I can question. But I don't do that for both my boys; both C and myself keep a very open environment at home and that nurtures our boys' little minds more than I can imagine. Some of S's questions are really strange - I wonder if I had questions like that when I was a kid.
More of S's questions are here...
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