The Unwanted Question

I woke up this morning with several thoughts on my mind:

1) I want to go back to sleep.

2) Ralexwin thinks he's so funny flipping on the light like that.

3) What on Earth am I going to blog about today.

4) I have way too much to do, I'd better just ignore them all and go back to sleep.

Then Ralexwin starts singing his favorite morning church song:

"Wake up and do something more then dream of your mansions above!"

* * *

So I woke up, did my motherly duties of sending the children off to their various locations (school, TV, baby swing) and sat down to find a prompt for the blog I couldn't come up with.

Nothing was clicking. I didn't really want to talk about the first book I ever read, or my biggest literary hero. Then I found this one:

~Think through an answer. You're standing behind a very pregnant woman in the grocery store check-out line, and your four-year-old asks loudly, "Mom, how will her baby get out?"

Mwahahaha. That's something my kids would say. They have no qualms about asking the "big" questions loudly and in public. (Most of them I wouldn't repeat.)

My answers vary greatly depending on my mood and the amount (and type) of public we are with. I either give a silly answer or say something to the effect of 'so help me if you don't lower your voice I'm going to make you wish you had.'

So how would I respond to a question like the above? I'd probably say, "Very painfully, but we can talk about that when we get home."

There was this one time when we were at a bookstore and I noticed the kids were staring at the man behind us. He started laughing so I looked over and realized he had a fake leg. He was very kind about the whole thing and made a remark about how his leg was more expensive than theirs were.

I like when children say things because it gives me the opportunity to talk about whichever fact of life they see.

Vicbowin and I went on a bicycle ride the other day and she announced to me that, "the skinnier you are the healthier you are."

"That's not true." I said.

"Yes, it is."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is, my friend says so."

"No it isn't, your friend is wrong," (at this point I'm cursing the friends parents). Before she can argue I add, "it's possible to be too skinny. Being healthy is being in between skinny and heavy (I try not to say fat in front of the kids). It has to do with eating right and in moderation and exercising just like Heavenly Father asks us to do."

"That would make you skinny though."

"Not always, some peoples (is that a word?) bodies are built differently than others and not everyone is a skinny minny."

It was a very nice conversation. The type I like having and that I hope she stores in her memory banks.

Maybe my kids say wild things because I allow that freedom so that I can teach them. If I were to stifle every loud "Mommy what's that big thing on that person's face?" Then how on Earth would I be able to teach them about life or even about the power of a softly spoken question in the peace of our own home.

So someday's I feel like patiently teaching them and other days I whisper in a frantic, fierce voice, "For the love child will you please keep your voice down."

A friend of mine said that social filters aren't natural, they have to be taught. I'd never thought of it that way before but I completely agree.