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«Mummy, that’s f***!»: Help, my kid curses like a sailor
by Katja Fischer
What keeps parents busy: "Mum, why are the clouds flying?"
20.11.2018
Translation: machine translated
Wow, this question from my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I'm flabbergasted and briefly in need of an explanation. What now?
During the car journey, my little one looks out of the window and follows her own thoughts. It's unusually quiet. Suddenly, the question "Mummy, why are the clouds flying?" comes from the back seat. Astonished by the question - she's only two and a half years old - I was a little at a loss to explain. A thousand other questions were racing around in my head after my daughter's unexpected, really good question.
What was that again? Heat, water, physics. The balloon flies because warm air rises and displaces the cold air downwards. Is it similar with the cloud? Why did I only ever have a window seat for science lessons? How did my little girl even think of something like that? We kept pointing out "Look, there's the moon!", "Can you see all those clouds?", "Oh look, an aeroplane!", "There's a balloon over there!" or "Your grandparents live over there on the other hill!". Well, the many hints to look at the surroundings and the sky while travelling by car must have had an effect and raised this, in my opinion, good question.
If you don't know, ask Google. You might be thinking... but I'm still behind the wheel. My smartphone is definitely not going to save me from this misery. So, collect all your thoughts again, think hard and try to formulate the most child-friendly answer.
"It's like this, sweetie: When the sun shines, the water on the earth evaporates. This water rises into the sky as water vapour. Water droplets accumulate and form a visible cloud."
Phew, that's it! As you can see, I didn't study physics or science. Is it even true? Does she understand it? I'm getting more and more worried that I've told her complete rubbish and hope that she'll forget it quickly. But I'm wrong, because the next question is already in the air: "Why is it raining from the clouds?". I try to answer this question as best I can: "If the cloud is made up of lots of water droplets, at some point it becomes too heavy and deflates. That's rain!"
"Mum, why is the rainbow on holiday today?", "Why is there a crane here?", "Why is this digger on the lorry?", "Why do we have to drive a car?", "Why are we overtaking this lorry?", "Do we have the black or the white car today?". Oh, the questions! But I am fully aware that our children learn about life precisely through these "why" questions. So let's try to answer everything and consult Google or an encyclopaedia again if we really don't know.
Activity ideas for on the go
If you don't feel like playing the question-and-answer game, just make sure you have enough entertainment
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Baby toys
Child & family music
Children's & teen books
Children's multimedia
Have you ever been in need of an explanation? Then I look forward to your anecdote(s) in the comment field below. Of course, you can also get in touch if you have a better, toddler-friendly explanation for flying clouds or rain! ;-)
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I’m the cook, cleaner, police officer, nurse, entertainer, motivator, author, storyteller, coach, organiser, chauffeur, lawyer and judge. To put it simply, I’m a mum to a daughter and not just a (Content) Manager at the office but also at home.
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