Fun concepts to explain.
Apr. 5th, 2008 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaAlex: 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.
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.
Age-appropriate
Date: 2008-04-06 05:46 am (UTC)It's just one of those things where there's an adult point of view that puts a different light on it. You've done well.*
*(I just couldn't bring myself to write "you done good," it wouldn't make it past my grammar filter...)