then what about those penguins?
B1 casually asked me this one morning when I was rushing off to work. Knowing my audience - a 5 1/2 year old, and an analytic one at that - I tried to be clear, accurate and honest.
Well, sweetie that is an excellent, very intelligent question, I begin...
I went into some details about 1) evolution, science and talked about birds adapting; 2) creation, religion and talked about a spirit greater than any one of us.
I am very interested in hearing from other moms (those scientifically, spiritually inclined or both) about similar queries and how they have handled it. It begs larger questions about what we are teaching children about our world and their place in it. To what extent are we reinforcing our own position about that world and perhaps limiting the ways in which they can engage with it.
What a shame if in our attempts to do our best at parenting we close off possibility for them (i.e. God created everything [period] or There is no spiritual force that influences nature [period]). Shouldn't childhood be about exploration and discovery. In retrospect, I wish I wasn't so anxious with proceeding with my answer, and had spent some time asking him about his.
In the end (of that conversation at least), he was satisfied that I explained two main answers to the question and suggested that it is possible to believe in both!
Calling all moms: How do you handle the BIG questions in ways that encourage your children to keep asking the little ones?
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