Why

“Why” is a word I hear often these days, a little too often for my personal taste, to be honest.
Baboo is going through the “why” phase, that time in a toddler's existence when the answer to each and every request, statement, fart is “why”. For example:

It's time for dinner.
Why?
Because we all need to eat.
Why?
So you can grow up bigger.
Why?
Burp.
Why?
Sniff
Why?

You get the picture.

Sometimes I do actually try to answer some of the “why” questions, to show that I do take her seriously when she asks questions, but after about 22, my head explodes and I say “Well, why do you think…?”. Generally, that ends the endless, mindless series of “why”.

However, the one that gets me every time is the “why are we stopping” when we’re in the car and have to stop at stop signs and red lights. We’re spending a lot more time in the car now with Mouse in school. There are about 10 stop lights/signs between our house and the school and on a GOOD day we’ll only get ½ of them, more likely than not though, we’re getting almost all of them. And we drive that route 4 times a day, 5 days a week. EVERY SINGLE TIME we stop, Baboo asks WHY we are stopping. And for a while I would explain that we have to stop because it’s the other driver’s turn to go (why) and if we all drove at the same time from different directions, we would end up in an accident (why), and that we could get hurt (why) and that would make us sad (why)... yada, yada, yada.

This went on for several weeks. However, now, when she asks WHY we are stopping, I try not to snarl, “Baboo, why do YOU think we are STOPPING?” and she happily pipes up “Because it’s not our turn, Mama! And Mama, you need to WAIT your turn. Even grownups have to wait. There’s lots of red lights. I LIKE red.” And I grimace smile and nod in the rearview mirror and agree with her. And repeat, repeat, repeat.

The last few days, though, she stopped asking so often and I thought we had this licked, I really did. I was almost hoping that it was going to end, but … the other day, when the light turned green and she asked “Why are we GOING?”

Why, indeed.