How do you deal with SO MANY QUESTIONS that they make your ears bleed?

[bintofbohemia]

Before I had children I thought I'd never be the sort of parent to fob a child off, I imagined myself answering everything and havign lovely intelligent chats along the way.

Then I had DS1 who has just turned four and oh my good god. He asks the same question 19,487679 times, even if you give a sensible answer, then he'll ask it again. Some of his questions are absolutely insane, some totally nonsensical and yet he expects a coherent answer immediately which he then wants to find fault with and argue about. Yesterday, whilst trying to get a wasp to get off DS2's face (no mean feat, am shit scared of wasps) DS1 carried on the whole time:

"Mummy, does FL begin with FLY? Does it mummy? Mummy?"

It takes every fibre of my being not to yell at him "Will you just bloody shut up for three seconds please!"

What do I do? Obviously he's bright and trying to learn but he is literally shredding my brain and I lovel nothing more than 7pm when it all goes quiet.

Help!

each of my kids have been like this
I no longer have brains and I have a twitch

i have no idea, but when you find can you let me no, as my ds is nearly 6 and still like that

Oh lord... DS has just started doing this. Current favourite is 'where did that come from?' over and over. Usually I have no idea what 'that' is, and if I dare ask he just strops at me [sigh]

Trinity

My DS is the same and has been pretty much since he started talking. I am a little oblivious to it these days and people always comment on it.

I've found that when he is asking the same question over and over he actually wants me to ask him the question. So I turn it around and he happily tells me the answer. It doesn't always work though.

He is currently obsessed with the body so all of his questions have been related to asking how we see, listen, poo etc. He also wanted to know exactly how babies were made. He is not yet 4 so not reading and showing little interest in doing so, but I have bought him a book on the body so we sit down and read that together.

All in all, the above methods are really just ways for me to keep my sanity. It really does get wearing though, I know.

"Mummy, why do I keep saying why?" Arghhhhh...

Sometimes I have to ask him to stop talking for a few minutes and let my head recover. Thankfully turning on the tv stops it...

Oh just wait until the tables turn when they become teenagers and it is you who ask the million questions while they merely grunt.

Not quite the endless question thing, but typical conversation with DS:

DS: I want to make a people cake!
Me: What's a people cake!?
DS: A cake made out of all people in whole world
Me: But what IS a people cake?
DS: Cake people!
Me: I don?t understand? ..
DS: People cake.
Me: [sigh] DS, can you try and explain what a people cake is made of?
DS: 2 people, cake, wheelbarrow, pirate ship, eye patch and SOFA!

llareggub - that's a good one.
If I don't know then I will generally ask "what do you think?"
or "shall we look it up on the internet?
DSs1 & 2 love looking things up on the computer.

Trinity -

No good if you have a wasp on your babies face though... tbh I'd probably go for the "can't you see I'm busy!!"

Some of them never stop, you know.

Ds1 is 14 and still bangs on and on and on and on........... but now it's 'Can I have a new (insert expensive item here)? Why not?' and 'Do I have to? Why? Can't you do it?' 'Have you heard about the new (insert boring PSP/xBox game here)?'

I have no advice, having shamefully reached the 'Shut up! I need to think!' stage some time ago.........

Ah yes, we are going through this. Ds1 is 5.

Very reassuring to know we are not alone

I currently have one of each.

One who asks questions solely, it seems, in order to spark more questions
One who wants to catch me out and show that he knows more than I do
One who grunts.

Bingo!

i have had children ask and ask and ask

i always try and answer sensible questions...

when asked the same question repeatly i normally reply with "what did i just tell you"... if they cant remember then i ask them to look at me and LISTEN... then repeat back... (question then not asked again again again)

if asking a stupid question that they know id silly or know the answer to i ask them to tell me what they think.

Its just a phase, its just a phase and it DOES stop...

Oh god. I had to have a sit-down chat with DS1 recently about not hitting DD1 on the head - even in affection . Cue the following.

mum so do you understand why you mustn't do a hard cuddle with your sister - she finds it scary and it hurts her.
son yes
mum so why mustn't you do it?
son I can't quite remember
mum it's because it hurts her. Now can you tell me why, so I know you understand
son but I don't understand
mum hard cuddles hurt your sister. I need to talk about this until you understand, becuase it's really important that you don't do it again.
son I don't want to talk about this anymore. I only want to talk about...dinosaurs
mum ARGHHHH

I have given up. Since ds was three I have taken the approach of no more questions go play and the lets go to the library and see if we can find the answer to some of your questions so at 5 ds knows I dont know the answer to everything and will go find a book he thinks will have the answer and then get me to explain it. Its a bit easier and now he reads better he baffles me with his knowledge.

I have 2 children both are like endless question asking machines.... my brain is now rotting.

Yes - ask the question then don't even wait to hear the answer before asking the next one!

ARggghh! Yes we are going through this with 3.7 yo DS.

And I always swore too that I would never fob my DCs off with "just because, ok" but am doing this more and more!

Oh I feel your pain. Before my DS1 hit 3.5 I used to marvel in his inquisitiveness. From 3.5 til 4.5 yo my brain started dribbling out of my ears from the relentless barrage of whys, what would happen if, how do you make, then back to why...

The inquisitive wanting to know the answer to something is fine.

Its the incessant whys that are just for the sake of it/just to hear his own voice/just to engage you are painful. He used to always already know the answer to those questions but would continue and continue until I'd give him my absolute full 100% attention.

Sometimes he asks the same question over and over as he's not convinced I've given him the whole story (eg when he went through his figuring out where meat came from).

He's better now though at 5yo...only asks questions to what he wants to know. Or in response to being told he can't have something!

Wait till the questions involve money!!!

JarethTheGoblinKing - that's brilliant. I can't stop laughing! Sounds like the conversation I'd have with my DS.

I suppose the answer is because children are extremely curious when young. Everything is new to them; they want answers.

And, on fundamental questions, we just dont know the answers.

My theory is that they ask the same question over and over when they haven't quite understood the answer and they want to see if you'll rephrase it. Or they just really enjoyed your answer and want to hear it again.