Why the why phase?

So, it's happened. It's really happened. Our boy is now 2 years and 8 months old and he has entered The Why Phase, for real. Everything he sees, everything he does....

Okay, I have to interrupt myself to supply you with a live quote. He just walked in (I had thought I had a few minutes peace, but perhaps not): What you doing up here mum? doing some work. Why? Why you doing that mum? Why you up here? I'm just trying to do some writing. But, why?

Why, indeed. Trying, being the operative word.

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Okay, I'm back. The inquisitive one is sleeping, as is his grabby hands brother. Having Zephyr enter the Why Phase has at least provided me with endless questions for this blog, although many of them are not particularly interesting for the adult reader. (Eg: "Why is that dog there?" Urr....)

The Why I am interested in at the moment is this: Why do kids go through the Why Phase? I mean, obviously there is a lot they don't know, and asking questions is the best way to gain knowledge, but is there more to it?

By around two and a half, most kids have a pretty good grasp on language, (even if only their mothers can understand what they're saying), so perhaps they have simply found the word they were looking for all this time - something that helps them glean the information they need to figure this world out. Whhhhyyyy?

But it often seems to me Zephyr is also trying to communicate with me on a new level, and this is something a lot of mothers in online forums on the subject seem to agree with.

At around three years, the child wants to talk, constantly, and sometimes they can't find a subject to talk about, so they pick something at random and ask you a question about it. If you listen to yourself as a parent, you will notice you are almost constantly asking your child questions, even ones you don't particularly want their opinions on, like 'shall we go now?' (read: it's time to go.)

So, the child is imitating you, in a way, by using questions to get a conversation going. Perhaps children are particularly sensitive to awkward silences. Oh, silences, I remember you.

It could also be to do with imagination. Zephyr's imagination is amazing, if I do say so as his unbiased mother, and seemingly limitless. When in role play mode (which is often), he can morph from a train to a lion to a holepunch in moments, absolutely becoming these things. His surroundings become a train station, a chair a tunnel, his brother a mountain to steam over.

With an imagination like that, the possibilities are endless and it's probably hard for him to see the difference between what's real and what isn't. Thus, all the questions. He needs to know the facts to help him figure out the truth. And why wouldn't there be a logical reason for that dog being there? There seems to be a logical reason for all sorts of things.

I guess the moral of the post is never to dismiss a Why, even if it seems silly to us adults. And try to suppress your giggle when the question verges on the ridiculous.

But who am I to preach? We do our best, and personally I believe that by the end of the day I deserve some kind of golden statue with my name printed on it if I haven't at least once said 'I don't know, Zephyr, I just don't know."