Responding to the never-ending questions of a 2 1/2 year old can be a daunting and tiring task.
Evan seems to have no shortage of questions, especially when we're in the car. A typical "interrogation" might go something like the following.
Evan: "How come we're going this way, Mom, and not that way?"
Mom: "Because this is the way to the store, Evan. That way would take us somewhere else."
Evan: "Where, Mom?"
Mom: "The other way, Evan. Then we wouldn't be able to get to the store."
Evan: "How come?"
Mom: "Because the store is this way and not that way."
Evan: "Why?"
Mom: "Because this is where someone decided to build the store."
Evan: "Why did they decide to build the store here, Mom?"
Mom: "I don't know, Evan. I guess they thought that this would be a good place to have a store."
Brief silence.
Evan: "And why are we slowing down now, Mom?"
Mom: "Because there's a red light, Evan. Do you remember what red means?"
Evan: "Red says 'stop!'. And what does green say, Mom?"
Mom: "You know what green says, Evan. What does it say?"
Evan: "Green says 'go!' and yellow says 'be careful!'"
Mom: "That's right, Evan. You remembered."
Evan: "But why does yellow say 'be careful', Mom?"
...
Ahhh...It's fun, challenging, frustrating and sometimes dumbfounding to try and answer all of those questions. I'll admit that after a while I sometimes tune out and then Evan has to ask several times. Sometimes I just say, honestly, "I really don't know."
Adam has a different strategy to deal with the questions. It's kind of a stream-of-conciousness monologue in which he anticipates and answers every possible question.
It goes something like this:
Evan: "Why are there workers there, Dad?"
Dad: "There are workers there because they're fixing the road. They're fixing the road because the City of Calgary Master Plan calls for better traffic circulation. That's because urban population continues to climb because people move to Calgary for the jobs. There are lots of jobs because we have a booming economy. The economy is good because it's based on natural resources which Alberta has lots of. Natural resources are things like gas and wheat. Gas is what makes our car go..."
The main advantage of Adam's approach is that Evan can't get a word in edgewise, but Adam eventually runs out of breath.
Sometimes, ususally in the early evening, I just tell Evan that I don't have any more answers today: I'm all out!
