Your answers to 10 tricky children's questions

Your answers to 10 tricky children's questions

news.bbc.co.uk

Where do bees go in winter? Don't know the answer? You're not the only one.

According to a new survey, four out of five UK parents have been stumped by something their children have asked. So we posed our own question - what difficult things have children asked you?

(visit the link for the full news article)

May be an education for some on ATS, hence posting!

The questions posed (sorry for the CAPS)

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
5. WHAT IS TIME?
6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
9. WHY IS WATER WET?
10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?

Regards

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by paraphi


Answers for kids

1. Look it up
2. Alot
3. They're all jerks, including you with all these questions
4. You have to touch the ground at the same time.
5. Man made nonsense.
6. That's no moon, that's a space station.
7. He didn't let it die, he killed it.
8. You're gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that!
9. Better than dry isn't it?
10. Refer to question 8.


End Communication


[edit on 14-8-2009 by DazE777]

reply to post by paraphi


1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
Because the current disipates when its grounded by the sea, the fish are submerged in the sea and thus the circuit isn't complete and they don't get the shock. If anything had ever come into existence which was killed rhe second lighting hit the sea they would all have died out during the first lighting storm, duhhh.

2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
Quiet a lot, it exerts a pressure of 1 atmosphere [i would then take them to an internet and look up how much this weight this is equivelent too. This would tell us how much the sky above us weighed, if he was still interested i would offer to work out the volume of the air around the earth and its relative density, however in real terms the sky doesn't weigh anything because its the sky duhhhh.

3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
Because we were once savage apes swinging in the trees, in order to exist we had to evolve, this left us with some complex issues to deal with - luckly over the last five thousand years we've developed a good understanding of what makes us tick and a good understanding of life, a cool head and some self respect you can rise above your biology and be more than just a beast on two legs, you my son can be a self-aware being - something surely worth aspireing too!

4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
Because they aren't grounded, if they reached out and touched the floor then they would be.

5. WHAT IS TIME?
Pimms o'clock! It's when one thing happens after another, the best way i can think of it is like a never ending string of snooker balls crashing into each other, the first one hits the second one hits the third one, etc, etc the pace is constant and the order will always remain the same.... HAHA LIES! That's until you get to university then you'll find out (you are going to university right little 6yo?) that time is a totaly nonsence consept which only really works because we can't deny that it happens - we don't really know anything about time apart from its nothing like we thought it was. Sometimes time changes, sometimes it might even stop all together! Maybe it didn't exist for a long time, but then how would you know how long it didn't exist for? how did it know when the right time to start time was? basically son no one really knows, time is just what the clock mesures - it's an easy way to organize when to do things, to predict when events will happen (such as dawn) and it's free!

6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
Because it takes the moon longer than a day to go round the earth, thus the times of the moons rise and fall change every day.

7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
Because there is no godvor he's a weirdo, things just die - it's part of life, sorry. IF nothing died then the first life forms ever to exist would still exist, we would never have evolved and no one would be here to feel sorry for dead kittens. It's like the slide a the park, you each line up and take a turn - if you stayed on it all day then the next guy would never get a turn -thats not fair, especialy if you're the next guy. That's why we have to make the most of life while we're alive, we only get a brief time better no waste it.

8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
Because it's an awesome colour, certain people have suggested that we responded in certain ways to certain colours due to our evolution but really i think we're above that - our understanding of art and design has hardwired our brains into a more advanced way of understanding images.

9. WHY IS WATER WET?
Because wet is the word used to explain the feeling of water duhhh! it's a fluid, the atoms which make it up are only loosely joined so that rather than a solid it flows, the same forces apply to all the atoms so it travels together but its easy to seperate groups of water atoms from others - this is why some bits of you break off and stick to you raher than stay with the rest of the water and why you can put your hand in water and it comes out wet.

10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?
Because they're gay duhhh, how old are you again? shesh! Tarquin and Baz are great guys i was round theirs for a beer the other day, apparently they met at an all nighter in 'nappa - used to be proper party animals when they were young but like everyone they settled down and got a cat, well of course being liberals they went to the pound and picked up a stray - well that night they were having a romantic night in watching muppets christmas carrol and oliver twist while strokeing their new adorable little cat - tarq said he was watching the poor little orphan boys when he had an idea! That night they went out and stole a baby from a stroller in the shopping center, that kid was eaten in a freak zoo accident so they grabbed brad outa the maternity ward as they left.

Haha, ok so i might not say 'like duhhhh' to my kid all the time, and the anser to question 10 is a protest answer lol because it's a stupid question! How do i know why he has two dads, it could be because his mom died and his brother helps bring up his son or because he's gay which doesn't really do anything to what i say to my kids, some gay people are idiots, crooks and criminals - some are salt of the earth fellas, i wouldn't be telling my son anything unless i knew the facts - lets just say whatever i say its gonna be pretty liberal and yes i would probably let him sleep over if i trusted them.

hehe oh and, i loled hard @ 6. That's no moon, that's a space station.


oh, oh and edit to add - Did i WIN?!? Do i get my licence to have a child now nanny state orwellian government?!? promsise i will answer all his questions with doubleplus goodthink answers!

[edit on 14-8-2009 by NatureBoy]

Originally posted by paraphi


May be an education for some on ATS, hence posting!

The questions posed (sorry for the CAPS)

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
5. WHAT IS TIME?
6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
9. WHY IS WATER WET?
10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?

Regards

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

1.) The ocean is conducts electricity around fish.

2.)The sky weighs as much as it can be piled onto the surface without turning into a liquid or solid.

40600000000000 tonnes

3.) Because people are evil assh*les and most are sadists inside who enjoy other's pain. You can help stop this but buggering the aggressor on the head.

4.) Because they don't touch the ground and wires are wrapped in insulators.

5.) The device of the universe which enables interaction and motion

6.) Because the moon is not in perfect 180 degree alignment with the sun.

7.) It had rabbis.

8.) Pink is liked by girls because Barbie says so. Pink is liked by boys because boys like girls.

9.) The molecules are weakly bonding.

10.) Because he likes men instead of women and his brain says so.


lol.

reply to post by DazE777


Thank you, DazE!!!

(Especially numbers 8 and 10)!

Brilliant.

reply to post by paraphi

That was a fun article to read, thanks for posting it.

I understood the answers to the 10 questions they gave, but did they ever say where the bees go in the winter? The article started out with that one but I didn't see any answers, but i think they either hibernate or make a ball around the queen to keep her from freezing, depending on the species of bee.

As for you folks' re-answering the 10 questions, you didn't think the 10 answers they gave in the article were good enough? They seemed ok to me!

Man, those are easy questions!

British kids sure are different than their U.S. cousins!

My pre-teen daughter routinely asks me questions such as these, which require much more difficult and embarrassingly candid explanations:

1. What is "the Donkey Show"?
2. (After finding out the answer to #1) Why isn't P.E.T.A. doing something to stop it?
3. Do clitoral piercings hurt?
4. What is a "porno"?
5. Where does evil come from?
6. Why is mommy such a wet blanket?
7. If I can swear in the virtual world, why can't I swear in the real world?
8. Why can't I have as many boy friends as I want?
9. Why do people smoke, drink, do drugs, or participate in other recklessly self-abusive and deadly behavior? (And if they can do it, why can't I?)
10. You tell me to question Authority, so why can't I question yours?

I guess that's what we get when pre-teen role-models from Disney are shoved down our childrens' throats on this side of the pond.

Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Vanessa Hudgens, Shia Labeouf, Raven Symone, Hillary Duff, Hayley Mills, Justin Timberlake, etc...All Disney role-models gone bad...Kinda makes Jodi Foster and Kurt Russell seem like positive Disney role-models by comparison!

Originally posted by paraphi

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
5. WHAT IS TIME?
6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
9. WHY IS WATER WET?
10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?

If a child asked my these here is my answers.

1. Because some of them are immortal. Vampire fish. They are the living-dead fish.

2. I know a female named sky and if I asked her she'd slap/punch/kick me or just tell me it's none of my business, so I would suggest not ask or it may fall on you.

3. Because the people that are not leaving other people alone are not people. They are animals trying to act like people.

4. Because birds are really electric ships that little creatures get in and fly around. They sit on the wire and drill though the plastic to the wire to refuel. We don't see the drill bits because they are even smaller then the creatures that fly the "birds"

5. Time is a magazine. It prints stories that are sometimes news and or just things to pass the day away with reading them.

6. Actually that is reversed sometimes the sun is out during the night. See on those nights the night actually lasts really long and the sun gets jealous and wants to show up again.

7. Because your kitten was possessed by legion.

8. Well, I haven't heard any pink, some people like her music.

9. Water is not really wet it's dry. It's actually reversed wet is dry and dry is wet, so the question would be " Why is water dry?"

10. Easy, your best friend's parents got divorced, and the mother remarried and he is what they call a step dad. Your best friend probably has to moms too. unless your best friend's bio-dad is a looser.

Originally posted by paraphi

Your answers to 10 tricky children's questions

news.bbc.co.uk

Where do bees go in winter? Don't know the answer? You're not the only one.

According to a new survey, four out of five UK parents have been stumped by something their children have asked. So we posed our own question - what difficult things have children asked you?

(visit the link for the full news article)

Parents generally just make up nonsense to quiet the child and is confident the child will not remember the nonsense answers. And to entertain themselves, no doubt, by observing the child's reaction - depending on the parent's answer, of course.

I won't say I remember all my parent's nonsense answers but I can tell you this:

I'm 43 years old and I remember a good number of them - how? As time passes and I learn more and experience more and catch mom and dad slipping and contradicting themselves over the decades I realize just how full of it they really were thus are.

Animosity? Don't discount people. Don't kiss their bum but don't discount them either because one day the clock's alarm will go off and you'll have no one else but an adult child who really doesn't want get stuck taking care of you - taking care of you. Misery for both.



[edit on 8/17/2009 by biggin]

[edit on 8/17/2009 by biggin]

Originally posted by biggin
Parents generally just make up nonsense to quiet the child and is confident the child will not remember the nonsense answers. And to entertain themselves, no doubt, by observing the child's reaction - depending on the parent's answer, of course.

Good point. I never understood why parents who don't know the answer aren't afraid of saying that they "don't know". There is no shame in not having all the answers. Actually, it is a good practice to tell your child "I'm not rightly sure, but why don't we find out?"

And besides, it provides the opportunity to show your child how to look up the answers without having to bother you every single time they have a question. If it is a grammatical question, they'll head to the Dictionary or Thesaurus first. If it is a science question they'll hit the appropriate books (or Wikipedia I guess now-days). You'll only get hit with the whoppers they can't find dismissed in the Urban Legends website, or documented on Wikipedia.

What's even better than showing your child how to lookup the answers is to show them how to find out the answer for themselves! When you child asks "If "Magnetic" North isn't "Polar" North, then how do you find "Polar" North?" take two stones and take your child outside to sit and watch a star rise and set, using those stones to mark their rising and setting and half-way between is true "Polar" North. When your child asks "How do you know the Earth revolves? Does it revolve clockwise or counterclockwise?" grab a string and a weight and show them by making a pendulum! Showing how or why is always better than telling them. It is what differentiates between Scientific Method from Credulous Faith.

I know I've told my daughter my share of tall-tales, mostly based around mythology questions (i.e., "Why does the Easter Bunny bring candied eggs? And why do we color eggs and search for them on Easter?"). Instead of delving into a long explanation of how Christians appropriated Pagan Rituals and came up with tenuous mythologies to explain them as Christian Practices, I just made up my own perfectly valid mythologies that were just as ridiculous of an explanation as the Christian ones. Over time, my daughter came to realize they were sardonic answers and appreciates them as such.

biggin, you are quite right...don't alienate your children by patronizing them with made up bluffs when you don't rightly know. Be honest with your children and show them how they can find these things out for themselves and they will truly respect you.

I have a father who is a mensa genius. I got answers like yours all the time. Too literal and just plain confusing.

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
They do, well not all of them, just those in a 5 mile radius. They breed every 43 seconds.
2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
About 120lb
3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
Cos we likey touchey feeley
4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
Becasue they are robots
5. WHAT IS TIME?
about 25 past 11
6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
It gets bored of being in the dark all the time
7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
He's a sadist
8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
You're a sadist
9. WHY IS WATER WET?
Becasue it's water
10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?
He doesn't. His mum's just proper minging.

NEXT

Answer to all of the above..
"How about we go out for Ice Cream?"
Seriously..my 8 year old asked me
"If you put an electric car in water..does it explode?" Cause he knows water and metal conduct electricity...
:shk:
I'd rather answer the simple stuff...

The worst question I ever asked my mother in public was "why has that man got a nappy on his head" In the middle of a busy town, whilst walking behind a Sihk bloke. (who heard me quite clearly) The next time she looked at me, I'd managed to get my nappy on my head. I don't remember this, but I get reminded every now and then. Infront of people

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
- They're not grounded, so the electricity travels through the water and through the fish, with no harmful effects.

2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
- The sky has no weight.

3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
- Some people are lonely, and some people really enjoy the company of others.

4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
- The birds aren't grounded, so the electricity flows right through the wires into them and back through the wires.

5. WHAT IS TIME?
- A way of measuring events.

6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
- Because the sunlight can still hit the moon at certain angles during the day and it glows bright in the day sky.

7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
- God didn't let your kitten die. Sometimes accidents happen, or sometimes living things aren't healthy. They die so they don't have to be in pain anymore.

8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
- Because pink is a color, just like green, brown, blue, yellow, and all the colors in the rainbow. It's normal to like colors that your friends might not like.

9. WHY IS WATER WET?
- The little atoms of water that make up large amounts of water can stick to your hand and stay there, so you feel it against your skin and it feels cool.

10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?
- Just like some people have one dad, or two moms, or one mom. Sometimes two people love one another, and if they do, they should live together and have a family.

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?
:: I don't think lightning hits the sea? o_O Does it?

2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?
:: Hmmm a very good question Johnny... If you can collect it all for me I'll tell you.

3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?
:: We're social, cruel, annoying creatures by nature.

4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?
:: Birds are magic....

5. WHAT IS TIME?
:: Man's weak attempt to quantify eternity.

6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?
:: Because it still exists during the day, the light just kind of blocks it out... the atmosphere and such...?

7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?
:: Why do you bring God into everything Johnny? Why did YOU let your cat die? No... really, I wouldn't know how to explain this without going on some epic rant.

8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?
:: Because you are genetically predisposed to certain likes and dislikes...

9. WHY IS WATER WET?
:: It's a liquid, stupid. The wetness would be the very loose cohesion, no? It can't hold itself together well enough, so little bits break off making the whole "wet" thing happen?


10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?
:: Because sometimes people are born homosexual, it's perfectly fine. Love is love.