WHY DO I HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL?

From ‘Is Father Christmas real’ to ‘Why is the sky blue?’, youngsters know how to put parents on the spot.

HAS your young child ever asked a question you just can’t answer? You’re not alone – nearly half of parents admit they often struggle to answer their youngsters’ tricky questions.

So what’s the solution? About 50 per cent of parents confess to turning to the internet to find an answer, while a third just make it up. A survey by Argos’ Chad Valley Toys found children under six ask an average 73 questions a day – meaning a lot of googling and on-the-spot answers for mums and dads.

Child psychologist Dr Sam Wass, from Channel 4’s The Secret Life of 4/5/6 Year Olds, said: “As children grow up, it’s natural to be curious about the world around them, and as parents, it’s easy to forget just how much of our children’s knowledge comes from what we tell them.

“Using educational and visual aids such as toys can help soften the difficulty of broaching trickier subjects. Familiar items can often help children’s understanding.”

To help parents withstand the daily question onslaught a little more easily, Dr Wass has come up with some handy replies for some of the toughest queries.

Here’s how to answer nine of the most challenging kids’ questions... WHY DO PEOPLE DIE? It can be tempting to soften the truth about death with a child. But telling them something like: “Granny went to sleep”, can backfire and cause more confusion later.

Often, grasping death in the context of nature can help: Compare a person’s life to a tree’s leaves, which bloom in the spring, change colour and die in the autumn. Or through animals dying, which for many children is their first experience of death.

If someone close dies, say something like: “Granny was very old and sick. She doesn’t talk or eat or breathe any more, and we won’t see her again. But the love we had for her will stay forever.’ WHAT IS GOD? Don’t be afraid to tell your child what you, personally, believe is the answer. It can also help to explain that different people have very different opinions on whether God exists, and, if so, what God is like. WHAT DOES ‘WE CAN’T AFFORD IT’ MEAN? The answer depends on the age of the child. For an older child, this can be an opportunity to discuss why some people have more money than others. But for a younger child, it might be better to teach about budgeting and planning resources. Tell them everybody has to decide what they most want, and has to save money for important things. WHY DO I HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL? If your child asks this question a lot, try to find out why. If they just ask once, say school helps them practise using their brain, and make them aware of what they can use their brain for. Remind your child that mummy and/or daddy also have to go to work, to use their brain and earn money. WHEN YOU DIE, WHO WILL I LIVE WITH? Reassure your child that it’s very unlikely you’re going to die soon but tell them what would happen to them if you did, and that they’d live with someone they loved and trusted. WHY IS THE SKY BLUE? You need to know basic science for this one: Light from the sun looks white but it’s made from all the colours of the rainbow. The light travels in waves of different lengths, which are reflected off bits of dust and other small particles in earth’s atmosphere. Because blue light waves are shorter, they’re more likely to hit the dust and other particles, and get reflected down to earth, making the sky look blue. WHY CAN’T I STAY UP AS LATE AS YOU? My instinct would be to use this an opportunity to teach a child about sleep.

Explain that sleep lets our bodies and brains rest, and when we’re asleep and lying flat, our bones can grow.

Because adults have stopped growing, children need more sleep than them.

Plus, when we sleep, our brains tidy themselves up and reorganise what we’ve learned during the day.

Children are learning new things very fast.

For example, the average child learns 10 new words a day.

Adults don’t learn so fast, because they already know their words.