"Mummy. WHY has that women got a dress on her head?"

[oliveoil]

Said dd1 to the house viewing couple, of whom the wife had a veil (not sure of the correct term - hajib??).

She was quite taken aback and refused to go upstairs and show her room off, like she normally does. She has seen veils before, so I am thinking that it must be because it is in our house.

I waffled on that some people wear different things, then she insisted that she wouldn't be able to see or hear and that it was silly and that "she didn't like her peeping eyes".

How on earth do you explain?

She is 3, 4 next month.

she didn't say it in front of her by the way, after they had gone!

x

I suppose you give her the politically correct reason. That lady chooses to cover her head as it is part of her religion, like nuns do.

well I said that, but then she still said why

LOL
At least she waited until they were gone.
It must seem quite frightening for a child to see someone covered up like that when it isn't how you were brought up, especially in your own home.

You can't read body expressions or facial clues so well can you.

I would have just told her that it was part of the ladies culture and used the opportunity to discuss what people wear all over the world.
As stereotypically as possible for a nearly 4yr old

I haven't had this yet with dd or ds
but I suppose you could say that the lady thinks her hair and her face are private and not for anybody else to see, just like we think our bottoms are private (if you do say this at home!)
actually thsat does rather compare her face to a bottom, not quite what I meant

Hijab is the colrrect term, was she just wearing a scarf coveribg her hair or over her whole face? I think that if your dd is that young she wouldnt have been offended anyway.

lady's

I once told DD that the ladies with the veils have a religion in which their husbands think they are so beautiful that they shouldn't show themselves in case other men get distracted and crash their cars...simplistic and probably wrong, but it stopped the "why?" questions.

whole face, apart from eyes, down to the floor, so fully covered

she said bye to them both and waved at the door to them so dd1 came round eventually, but just full of questions

ahhhh but Spagbog, she would then ask why I didn;t wear one

Hmmm, DD never asked me why I didn't wear one...

Don't know the answer but DS2 asks why they are dressed up as monsters, to their faces.
I wouldn't worry though, I'm sure the wearers are more than used to comments.