5 Tips for Answering Tough Questions From Your kid

You will spend a good part of your parenting life fielding questions from your children. Some of the questions will fill you with pride and awe, coming from a child. Some of them will embarrass you, especially when blurted loud in public. Some will make you scratch your head and wonder what you were thinking, having kids. Then there are those that will just take you out. These few tips will by no means stop the barrage of questions, but they will give you an easier time answering tough questions from your kid.

Give age-appropriate facts

Provide facts for your child’s latest questions. There is always the temptation to lie, but do not give in to it. Do not twist the truth out of shape either. Once you have given these facts, you can build up on them with more information as the children grow older.

Do not give too much detail

Do not plague your children with details, they will have probably lost interest by then anyway. Keep your answers short and simple. For instance, if your child wants to know where they came from, spare them the details of the conception, implantation and gestation.

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Understand the question

Try to understand the question and the motivation of the question is a key tip for answering tough questions from your kid. Children, most of the times, are simple beings. You might sometimes get the question the wrong way and end up answering what was never asked. Ask follow up questions to clarify exactly what they are need to know.

Do not ignore the question

Do not dismiss or ignore a question or it will come up again – in the shower, at the dinner table, in the car on the way to school. Do not try to distract them either. Better answer it and get it over with.

Take your child’s fears seriously

Some of the questions children ask stem from genuine fears, do not ignore them. This is especially true if the same question keeps recurring. Assure them of their safety and try to get to the bottom of such questions. Give them and avenue to open up to you.