Fun concepts to explain.

[rivka]

Alex: peeling a stamp off my stamp book, which I carelessly left on my desk. I need an envelope.

Me: Hey! Stamps cost money, so you can't use them without permission. takes it back.

Alex: But I need a stamp. I need an envelope that we're not using, and some stamps.

Me: Why do you need them?

Alex: Because I need to send a letter to my great-grandmother.

Me: Who is your great-grandmother?

Alex: She died.

Me: Honey, you can't send a letter to someone who died.

Alex: Why not?

Me: Because when someone dies, we don't know where they are and no one can see them or be with them anymore. That's why it's so sad when someone dies.

Alex: Oh.

I feel like I bungled that one, inadvertently giving the impression that death is like being swept away to one of the CIA's secret prisons. It would help if she gave me advance warning that I was going to need to come up with a sensitive explanation of life's great mysteries.

Comments

[going-not-gone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love the way they spring deep philosophical questions at you without warning. : )

I think you did fine. If she asks again, you might just say, they're in a place that the post office can't find.

My daughter, at around Alex's age, just thought my stamps were pretty stickers, and decided to decorate a sheet of paper with about $4.00 in postage!