Why...why...why?

[Amelily]

How do you cope with the 'why?' question? It's driving me insane!! Dd1 is 3.2 and has been 'why-ing' for a while but recently it has got worse. I know it's a ploy to prolong the conversation but it actually makes me want to stop talking to her at all. Every day I promise myself that I will stay calm / not get sarcastic etc and every day I fail at some point or other. I do try to not answer and to distract but it doesn't seem to work. Help!!

Try just saying i have told you x ammount of times why so i wont tell you again!

answer 'because it is', she'll soon lose interest if you don''t play along!

I don't mind the 'why's' so much it's the 'I wants' that piss me off.

I sometimes just say "I don't know...."
seems to work

The "I wants" really annoy me - I tell DS1 he sounds like Veruca Salt and that usually stops him

awww they aren't doing it to be a pain! they are doing it because they are learning about the big wide world!

I try to answer dd in the best way i know how - if the correct answer is "i don't know" then thats what i say, and maybe give possible answers but make it clear i don't know.

I think to not answer is kind of dampening their enthusiasm for life which can all too easily happen anyway when they do break out into the big scary world.

"'cos i said so"

Can you turn it round and ask her why?

"Why do you think?"
"How do you think you/we could find that out?"

I know they are doing it because they want to learn, and when my ds went through this phase, I would always answer the first few "whys", as they were real questions to which he wanted answers. But then he would carry on doing it just for the fun of it. One day I decided to count the "whys". I gave up when it got to fifty... and that was before 10o'clock in the morning! They do eventually grow out of it though.

Oh, believe me hattie05 dd is asking "why" to be a pain! I always reply to her, and explain things, because thats the only way children can make sense of the world, but when she asks "why" about the same topic for the hundredth time I'll ask "well why do you think?" and she'll give me the right answer with a knowing grin far beyond her 3.5 years...

Another one here going through the "why" phase. I think he really wants to know but from the 15th question onwards I can see that he is just pulling my leg! Last time, after so many "why" I told him he was 2 whys short of me answering because I say so! and he bursted laughing!

haven't got to why yet (looking fwd to that then...) I'm having problems with "mine" even when the item in question is SO not his...