Big Sis has just started asking some really tricky questions. It seems to have started when she learnt at Kinder that the dinosaurs weren’t alive anymore. This triggered a conversation that went something like this:
“Why did the dinosaurs die?”
“They lived for a really long time and then things changed and it was time for other things to live instead, so all the dinosaurs died.”
“Will we die?”
“We will, but not for a very long time. When we are really really old, so you don’t have to worry about it!”
“Are you really old?”
“No, I’m not old yet but we will all be old one day.”
“What do you look like when you are dead?”
“You are very still and your eyes are shut.”
“Can you eat when you are dead?”
“No.”
“What happens to you then?”
This last question really stumped me, what do you say to a 3 year old that is at once accurate and comforting? I mean seriously, what do the secular humanists run with? Can you really look your 3 year old in the eye and say we don’t know, that it may be an eternity of nothingness or limbo? That you’ll never again grow a sunflower, kiss and hold a loved one or eat a chocolate bar?
Fortunately for us we do believe in God (although generally in that cop out way of deferring to a nameless and faceless greater power crossing all religious boundaries blah blah), so I was able to explain that we would go to heaven, that Baby Jesus ran the place and although no one knew exactly what it was like, as he was a pretty cool guy it should be OK.
Big Sis responded to this and was keen on the idea that it was possible (although not certain) that there may be a facility available, once residing above the clouds, to keep an eye on what was happening on the earth! She figured this is what the dinosaurs are doing!
dinosaurs, kids and big questions, kids and religion
May 20th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Ah, this reminds me of Miss M’s first experience of death - one of our goldfish. I agonised for ages over what to do with it, and for some insane reason decided to put it in the rubbish, because I didn’t think she’d see it, and I could avoid hard questions. Of course, she found it, and got hysterical, screaming “will you put ME in the rubbish when I die?” Ah, that was some a-grade mothering on my part!
May 20th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Mmmm, difficult one to answer…. no, not the rubbish but we will put you in a wooden box and leave you in the cold ground forever? Or, we’ll burn you up in a big fire? Hard to know how to put it really!
May 21st, 2007 at 2:49 pm
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