Mr. God, Bunny Bread, and Explaining Death to a 4-Year-Old
Caitlin and I have had some interesting conversations lately about God, or as she calls him, Mr. God. I’ve been telling her stories about my maternal grandmother and trying to explain that she has died and gone to Heaven. But Mr. God and his omnipotent presence works his way into all sorts conversations. Case in point…
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Caitlin: Mr. God made Bunny Bread? (As she is waiting for me to butter her toast.)
Me: I don’t know….maybe he did.
Caitlin: Yes he did. (Pause.)
Mr. God eats food?
Me: I’m not sure if Mr. God eats food. What do you think?
Caitlin: Yes. Yes, he does.
Me: What does he eat?
Caitlin: Mr. God eats vegetables! (Pause.)
And he drinks milk!
(In which I sigh a parental “WHEW” because at least Mr. God has a healthy diet.)
Caitlin also has a bit of an ongoing fascination with the concept of death. The hubby was watching some caveman extravaganza on The Learning Channel yesterday in which pre-Tivo man was killing an elephant for his weekly grub. Caitlin sat glued to the TV, watching the entire scene. “Is that man killing the elephant?” she asked the hubby, and he proceeded to explain to her that many years ago we didn’t go to the grocery store for food.
This is deep stuff people. This is not your typical preschool curiousity and run of the mill “the apple is red?” or “the doggie says woof?” Real life and all the blemishes it carries is slowly unveiling its thorny self to Caitlin and that scares me just a little. The challenge, for us as parents, is talking to her about the scary parts of this big ole world without her automatically pulling the covers over her head. So far, so good.
