The innocent and inquisitive Yashwanth

I have always been amazed by my son's curiosity of knowing things better. Here are a few inquisitive episodes of my son. 

An instance five months back..

It was a time, when my son was getting addicted to the mobile phone, watching all the educational videos and rhymes. This is undeniably a typical situation across all the new generation families. Irrespective of the age, babies to grannies are going digital. In fact, I would not be surprised to see the pets going digital in some years (Digital India DA!!).

Considering his mental and physical health, I decided to cut down the screen time to one hour per day. (A recent study says, ideal amount of screen time is 45 to 60 minutes per day). Though, my son knows A to Z on the mobile phone, I have deliberately made him unaware about the switch to turn on and off the router. So, when I turn off the router, the three lights on the router go off. Every now and then he keeps an eye on the router to check if the lights are back, without knowing that there is a switch to be switched on. I find this technique more easier to keep him away from the screen. (Healthy cheating in parenthood is allowed, according to Anitha’s law of parenting).

When I turn off the router, I have to cook up my own stories to narrate, as to why the internet connection is down. Such stories are, maintenance work is going on, internet guys have gone on vacation to Kodaikanal, I have not paid the bill yet and hence the disconnection. Every day, a new lie, sorry story.

On one fine day, he was back from the school. The good boy refreshed himself and had his lunch quickly. He was getting ready for his screen time and was allowed to watch for an hour. Later, I had turned off the router. As usual he was asking me for a reason. The story teller inside me said, “There was a crow which sat on the internet wire and now the wire has been broken and disconnected. So, please wait until the internet guys fix it”. He left the place without uttering a word and he was totally engrossed in setting up railway track and building blocks. After an hour or so he rushed to me and asked in a very innocent tone, “Amma, why is this crow sitting on the wireline. Doesn’t it have a sofa set at home??” I just burst out laughing and hugged him for his innocence. Then I had to explain him about the stone age and the civilization of how we got house arrested with the sophistications. At least, let the crows live under the sky unlike us living under a roof.

Another recent incident-

We hired a cab from Royapetah to Velachery. Whatever strikes his sight will be a question to us. Just imagine!!  It will take at least 30 to 45 minutes to reach our destination. He was all set to throw questions at us. It started with Metro train running underground, aeroplane, bridge construction, 2.0, etc and finally AMBUR STAR Biriyani, a restaurant which was recently opened in our locality. As we were crossing the restaurant, he was on the top of his voice shouting, “Amma, Star biriyani!!!”. (En inamada nee :) )

That moment something struck his mind and the conversation went like -

Yash: Amma, what will be there in Star biriyani??

Me and Hubby: (Throwing a silly-boy look at him) Biryani

Yash: That I know. What will be there in that biryani??

Me: Mutton

Yash: How come mutton in Star Biryani.. Star has to be there right? In Chicken Biryani we have chicken and in Mutton Biryani we have mutton and in Star biryani??

LOGICAL REASONING!! Maybe his left brain is developing well.

The cab driver, who was enjoying his solitude throughout the drive, was laughing out loud. Yash broke his silence. (KIDS CAN BREAK ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. So, keep the expensive items out of their reach.)

The art of asking questions never ends.. It continues with - 

1.    Why Amma you don’t have mustache and beard

2.    Why is it getting dark in the evening

3.    Where was this sun the whole night

4.    Why do we have black and white portions in eyes

5.    Why is my dad so tall and my uncle is short

6.    Why crescent moon has C shape

Even if I try to answer all his questions, he tries to frame another question from the previous answer. He is definitely not OK with a one word answer, and keeps pestering me until I give him a big lecture. He has reached a state of asking questions, even without a subject, head, tail, noun, adjective.. Heights of Learning!!

I know everyone will have such similar stories. Let us all encourage our kids to ask many more questions. Let the neurons of our child's brain be well connected with our factual answers. The first five years play a vital role in a child's brain development. Attention, eye contact, smile, touch and love - are the ones required for the brain development and not the expensive toys. Let's be our child’s toy. 

Happy Parenting and Q&A session with your child!!