Why every academic writer should live with a 5 yr old.

So as Ambriel learned to talk and mastered that oh so enormous part of childhood question, "why?", I discovered that I'm the sort of parent who tries to answer every query honestly. While this has led to some sticky situations regarding fictional characters like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, and has forced me to think carefully about which version of the truth I want her to know about, say, where babies come from, the biggest problem I've run into is that she asks about things I don't completely understand myself.

I think it was Gerald Graff who argued that if you can't explain your ideas in a way that someone who knows nothing about them can understand, then you probably don't have as firm a grasp on them as you think. I thought that I understood plenty about the world around me until I started trying to explain it to my daughter.

"How does the gas get from the pump into the car and how does it make the car run?"
"How does my blood work?"
"Why do I need shots to keep me from getting sick?"
"Why are there four seasons?"
"Why does water turn into ice?"
"How do chickens lay eggs?"

Now most of these may not seem like very difficult questions, but they've all given me trouble in their own  ways as I've struggled to find the right words, or realized that I don't know exactly how it works, only that it does. The moments when I don't know are great for teaching her about research, of course, but I hate the thought of losing my status as the all knowing parent, and I also worry about ruining the magic of childhood by making everything too clear and matter of fact.

Still, I was reassured yesterday when one of my explanations seemed to pay off. We've been talking recently about how actors pretend to be other people in order to make movies and shows for us to enjoy because she recognized the same actor in two different movies. I hadn't told her about voice actors, however. As we were watching Apollo 13, though, she cocked her head to one side and said, "He sure does sound a lot like Woody in Toy Story."
"That's because he is." I replied. "His real name is Tom Hanks and he recorded the voice of Woody."
"That's so COOL, Momma! I didn't know that people made the voices!"

I guess there is still some magic, even in how things really work :)