Children Asking "Why?"

Boy goading his mother…

Boy: Why do you have so many pumpkins?

Mother: To make pumpkin… oh, to make pumpkin marmalade.

Boy: Why did Franklin fly a kite in an electrical storm?

Mother: He wanted to become… to become a lightbulb.

Boy: Why did Lady Godiva ride on a horse with no clothes?

Mother: She wanted to… become a chocolate.

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Voice-over

Children’s "why" questions sometimes never end. Some children are merely curious. Others use the “why” question to provoke. Parents need reserves of inventiveness and even flippancy to preserve their sang froid and to send the child away to puzzle over why they answered as they did. Or perhaps ask, “What do you think?”
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