If you’re a parent of a young kid, congratulations: You’re basically a full-time customer service rep for the Department of ‘Why?’.
A new report says the average parent fields 46 questions a day from their child. That’s one every 18 minutes if you’re lucky enough to sleep through the night.
Of course, that’s an average. Some parents with teenagers might only get one grunt-like “Can I have money?” ask a day, while parents of toddlers are fielding thousands of urgent inquiries like, “Why are there clouds in the sky?” and “Where do puppies come from?” and “Why can’t you make me macaroni and cheese?”
Most of the time, the questions are manageable, but parents admit they still don’t have answers about 35% of the time.
(“Where do dreams go when you wake up?” is apparently not covered in the handbook.)
Despite the chaos, 91% of parents say it’s important to nurture their child’s curiosity. Though based on the same report, those same parents also yell “Be careful!” about 27 times a day, and “Don’t touch that!” 25 times… so curiosity has its limits.
And it turns out today’s kids might actually be more curious than their parents were. 77% of moms and dads think their little ones ask more questions than they ever did.
Which makes sense… back in the day, we didn’t have YouTube explaining how volcanoes work.
So if you’re feeling exhausted, just remember: all those endless “whys” are proof you’re raising a future genius. Or at least a future person who will absolutely dominate trivia night.
