Ladybugs and other pressing life questions
Does a ladybug know it’s a ladybug? Do ants talk? Do ants talk to ladybugs?These were all the thoughts going through my 5-year-old daughter’s head when she was supposed to be practicing t-ball. But who can worry about not getting hit in the face with the ball when there’s a ladybug flitting around? It’s fitting, really, considering her team is called the ladybugs. To the first question, I had to answer that I have no idea. She didn’t even wait for answers to the other questions before launching into even more about ants, ladybugs and various other “icky creatures,” as she calls them these days. No doubt the questions won’t get any easier with age. If I don’t know the answers at age 5, what the heck am I going to do five or even 10 years from now?Last week, we were making our way through the nightmare known as the intersection at Pennsylvania Avenue and Memorial Road when she saw a panhandler holding a sign that read: “Family in need of help. God bless you.” And so it began. “What’s that sign say?” “Why is that woman holding the sign?” “Are we going to help her?” I won’t pretend I had the right answer or even anything close. I told her, of course, what the sign said. And explained that sometimes people don’t have enough money to buy all of the things they need to keep them safe and healthy. And to the last question, I told her that we try to help people when we can but that it’s not really safe to just roll down your window and start talking to strangers. Her attention quickly turned to something else. Mine didn’t. It feels somewhat hypocritical to work so hard at teaching children to care about others but then pass up such a visible opportunity. There are other opportunities we as a family don’t pass up. We’ve adopted families at Christmas and allowed her to participate in projects for the benefit of others. Truth is, she’s asking some important questions, even if she doesn’t know it yet. I’d be OK if she’d stick to questions with answers that are just a Google search away. –Christy
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Maybe we should teach our kids to google at an early age because I certainly do not have all the answers to these 5 year old questions! Once I start answering a question it seems to just lead to even more questions.