Curiosity’s Appetite

Curiosity, the only appetite a child really has besides food.  What would the world be today if it were not for curiosity – and better yet a child’s curiosity?  As a child, I’m sure I was just as curious as the next…but never as much as my own children were when they were younger!  I mean talk about keeping me on my toes – especially Michelle!

One morning as I was walking out the door at about 7:40 to be at work by 8:00 I hear a small sweet voice behind me saying “Mommy, I need to go potty.”  Well, my daughter who was then about 3 years old had not gone “big time” potty for days.  And you know what I mean by big time potty.  We all know the distinction between #1 and #2; well Michelle had not reached that greater number for about 4 days now!  Even though there are some things you can do for your children, this was definitely not one of them.  Michelle then said, “I need to talk to you Mommy, come with me.”  Well, I was so happy that she needed to go to the bathroom finally that I decided it might be ok to be a few minutes late to work, so off we went.

Before I go any further you need to understand that my daughter, even at the age of 3, talked quite well for her age.  I mean she started talking when she was 9 months and really hadn’t stopped since.  This was truly the first time she had said, “Mommy, I need to talk to you.”  

As Michelle is sitting on the potty, and as I’m so excited that Michelle is finally going to try to get it all out, so to speak, Michelle asks me to sit down.  I say, “Honey – I only have a few minutes before I have to go to work.”  Michelle says, “Sit down on my chair mommy.”  So I sit down on the little baby chair in the bathroom, thinking, where did she get this bossiness anyway?  

“Mommy, how did God make people?” 

Here I was in my raincoat with heavy clothes on underneath and I break out into a complete sweat within a matter of seconds.  I stand up to take off my coat and Michelle yells at me, “Mommy!”   “Honey I’m not leaving, I’m taking off my coat.”  I was thinking as I was talking, oh God…how the hell am I going to answer this question?  I quickly realized I wasn’t getting any help from above on this one…because my mind was complete mush by now.  I knew that this question would come up, I just didn’t know it was going to be this early in my daughter’s life!  I thought maybe when Michelle was 5 or 7 years old while we were reading a book at bedtime or something…but no…she pulls this on me now, at 3 years old and in the bathroom while trying to go poop no less!

“Mommy…how did God make people?” Michelle said.  My stomach was getting upset quickly.  I just never pictured that I would be sitting in the bathroom on a baby chair, with my child who hadn’t gone # 2 for four days, trying to tell her, in a simplistic manner that God made it so that a man and a woman make babies by making love!  How could she pull this on me now?  

I wanted to say, “This question is a wonderful question for your Daddy!”  But I knew she wouldn’t buy that.  And her Daddy would kill me if I passed the buck on this one.  Mommies tell little girls what it’s all about right?  I really didn’t want to back out because this was an important question and I wanted to say it as simply as possible so her uncomplicated child mind could understand.  I had absolutely no idea what to say.  I rarely thought this heavy in the morning, let alone before coffee.

“Well honey…that’s a good question.  God made it so you would grow inside of me so I could make you!”  She looked at me as if she was trying to work this out when she said, “I know’d I came out of your tummy, but didn’t God make me?” 

“Yes…but…God made it so girls could have babies.  But girls can’t have a baby without the help of a boy.”

“Oh.”

“Honey,  we need to talk about this later when you’re a little older.”

“When I’m four?”

“Yes, maybe when you’re four.”

“God made trees and our house too!  He did, he did!”

“Yes, your right, he did.”

“But we don’t see God, he’s all over us and we can’t see him, but he can see us.”

Man, I could not believe Michelle was talking like this – her mind was a lot more complex than I thought it was. 

“I goo’d poo poo mommy! Let’s go!”

We both left that bathroom feeling incredibly relieved. 

Curiosity is the desire to know.  Curiosity, a child’s true appetite…