Reddit Thread Explodes With Parents Sharing Unanswerable Toddler Questions

Toddlers have a bad rap and it’s partially warranted. Two-year-olds are known for being difficult, challenging, and pushing their boundaries. The “terrible twos” also comes with an interesting time where the kids start to realize there is more to the world than their house, and that comes with a whole slew of questions. Usually, “why” questions, and according to experts, it’s totally developmental. Toddlers will also ask the same question over and over, but sometimes they surprise us with good why question that makes us laugh and stumps us. A Reddit thread exploded recently with parents sharing the “why” questions their toddlers asked which they had no answer for, and you can’t even make these up.

An Ask Reddit thread started earlier today with user rivergame posing the question, “Parents of Reddit, what ‘why?’ Has your toddler thrown you that even Google couldn’t answer?” It didn’t take long for the questions to come in, and they did not disappoint.

FunetikPrugresiv shared a conversation he was had with his son, who pointed and asked, “Daddy, what’s that”? He answered back, “that’s a cow” only to be hit back with, “why.” If you think about that question for a moment, there’s no other way to answer his question other than with “because.”

“My son asks me every day, ‘why are we on this planet? Why are we here!’” no-money-at-all shares. “He’s four, man. What do I answer?!” Their child wasn’t the only one with an existential crisis tfwNotPraisingTheSun said to their child, “I love you,” only to be hit back with “why” from their toddler. “It’s been 2 weeks and I’m still evaluating why,” the Reddit user explains. “Sent me on an existential journey.”

There are some universal questions that many parents have been asked at some point or another, but likely not with the pressure this parent felt. “My 1st grader asked in front of her entire classroom, ‘why does the Tooth Fairy want my teeth?’” user smaysy explains. “30 6-year-olds looked at me for the answer.”

Other questions the Reddit community shared included, “why are things called what they are?” “Why was I in space before your tummy?” and “are you going to be a boy when you grow down?” These are super deep questions, again, with no answer, that makes even us adults stop and wonder.

As a parent to four kids, I’ve had several strange “why” questions from my own children. I’ve had to field questions such as, “why is red called ‘red’? “why do I have to wear socks?” “Why do we only have 2 hands?” “why do we have to waste time breathing?” the age-old question, “why is the sky blue?” and “why are the trees giggling?”

There are no real right answers for any of these questions, and it leaves me with the question: Why do toddlers love to mess with us like this?

So far, this Ask Reddit thread is nearly 6 thousand comments deep, and it’s worth a full read if you’ve got the time.