Questions that a 4 year old can ask..how to answer them?

[Kim1013]

My 4 year old has been asking a ton of tough questions lately that I try to answer as best as I can but at the moment she seems to be stuck on...
Where do babies come from (I'm not comfortable discussing this topic with you yet)and how do they come out of your tummy? Do they come out of your mouth? (Ummmm, no. Babies come out of your pee-pee). I don't think she liked the answer to that one.
Mommy, am I going to die? (Everyone will die and no one knows when but hopefully God plans for us to live for a really long time. It is important for us to live each day to the fullest and to follow God's teachings...) What happens when we die? (We will go to Heaven to live with God and all of our loved ones who have passed before us. Heaven is the most beautiful place you can imagine.....Dying is not something you should be afraid of)

As I said, the girl knows how to ask some tough questions! I try the best I can to answer her truthfully and not shield her too much from the realities of life. She seems to respond and accept it well and she almost always comes back with more questions.

[blossomed]

Only you all will think this was cute.

My 2YO has been pouring over the toy catalogs! Last night we were looking at Target and we get to the coupon section -and she says "Look Mommy, there's you coupons!"

[434Teresa]

Only you all will think this was cute.

My 2YO has been pouring over the toy catalogs! Last night we were looking at Target and we get to the coupon section -and she says "Look Mommy, there's you coupons!"

sounds like something my alex would say..


My twins also ask where babies come from..
I have a puffy scar from it and sometimes the button from a ziper will make it all read and hurt. So I sometimes unbutton them while watching tv ect. They dont have to see me do it either they can just tell when they are unbutton. Before I know it one of them has pulled up my shirt and asking me again why I have that scar,and why they came out of my belly.

I tell them that God put them in there to grow but then when they got to be the size of a doll they needed more room to grow so the God told the Dr.s to go in my tummy and get them out for him. For now they are happy with that answer...sometimes they want to know why they needed to grow in there and I tell them so they could sleep all day and nobody would be able to wale then up LOL Alex says I dont want to sleep all day, then says I dont have to go to sleep now do I? Then they run off to play in fear of having to go to sleep they dont want to sleep but I do and cant....

I try not to lie but some things they just dont need to know yet....

[kschick96]

When my sister was in kindergarten, my dad was driving her to school when she looks over at him and say, "Guess what daddy, Mrs. Smith is going to be gone today, so we are going to have a prostitute teacher."

My dad slammed on the breaks and told her "I think you mean a substitute teacher."

[3timesoccermom]

Too funny!!!

When my sister was in kindergarten, my dad was driving her to school when she looks over at him and say, "Guess what daddy, Mrs. Smith is going to be gone today, so we are going to have a prostitue teacher."

My dad slammed on the breaks and told her "I think you mean a substitute teacher."

When my oldest was very young (about 3) she became fixated on dying and for weeks would tell me "I don't want to die." It tore me to pieces (still does to think about it) and over and over I found myself trying to explain in a way that wouldn't scare her more that everybody does die eventually. I don't know that I ever did an adequate job.


Kim1013 - re below: it sounds like she's zoned in on the fact that you are uncomfortable about her question(s) and that makes her even more curious because it seems taboo. Abstract answers like "you go to heaven when you die," etc., are impossible for young kids to grasp so she may be repeating those questions because she can't understand and is trying to figure it out.


"My 4 year old . . . seems to be stuck on...
Where do babies come from (I'm not comfortable discussing this topic with you yet)and how do they come out of your tummy? Do they come out of your mouth? (Ummmm, no. Babies come out of your pee-pee). I don't think she liked the answer to that one."

[SouthernBelle5]

What....I'm the only one that uses the "daddy and I are wrestling, and I won" explanation?

and I WON!!

[cheap-o]

Working as a preschool teacher I get asked the wierdest things. But the easiest way to not answer a question is to ask it back to them.

Child: "Why is that cat laying the middle of the road?"
Me: "I don't know. Why do you think the kitty laying in the middle of the road?"
Child: "I think it's taking a nap?" (or some other wierd and clueless answer)
Me; "Oh, really?! Thats kind of a strange place to take a nap."
Child: "ya, well, it wanted some fresh air. So it had to come out of its house."


Just turn the whole thing around on them. Usualy they have an answer. They just want interaction. Then I say things like "Wow, really?", "Why do you think that is?". Then they start telling me a story. Really they don't want to know the honest truth. They just want to be right. And at 4 or 5. The way they see things is the only way the world works.

[434Teresa]

This one is not a odd one but a hard one all the same.

Alex wants to know where blood comes from when he bleeds. There is no winning on this question with him for anything I tell him leads to more questions. The only thing that has got him to stop asking "is your body just knows when the make blood" However now he wants to know more than just that. I have pointed to his blue veins and told him that they are full of blood and told him what it does on a 5 year old level but then a few days later he just ask it again.
He fell awhile back and busted his head that is how he knows about blood. It was everywhere. Ever since every few weeks it seems like he comes back to ask me this same question again.

[cheap-o]

Have you tried the "What did I tell you last time, honey?" question? Sometimes they just can't remember asking the question. But if they think about it they might remember. Or if they do remember they might have new questions.

Sometimes it is also helpful after you explain something to ask them to repeat it. Children get better memory cognition when they verbalize. Plus you get to hear how their mind is processing it and on what level. This is especialy helpful when you are explaining rules, when they have done something wrong or when you are telling them to stop doing something.