But Why?

I'm sure that any of you with small children have heard that phrase more times than you can count. This particular phrase became the topic at dinner - meaning, that's about all anyone said throughout the entire meal!

My 5 1/2 year old son, Alex, has started asking ALLOT of questions lately, some that are just not answerable, but most of them being "But Why?". Now, as any parent knows, answering the "But Why?" question only leads to another "But Why?". It's a never-ending cycle that can drive any sane parent to the loony bin. My husband, being an antagonizer to anyone that he chooses to be worthy of harrassment, has grown very tired of the "But Why's" and decided to try a bit of reverse psychology on our oldest during our dinner conversation.

It didn't matter what poor Alex said, he was greeted with "But Why?" from Michael. After more questions from Alex and several responses from his daddy of "But Why?", it seemed that a lightbulb was suddenly turned on in his head. He began to grow aggitated with his daddy, and decided to stop talking. However, being the Chatty Kathy of the family, this silence only lasted for so long - about 3.5 seconds - before he decided to ask me a question. When I answered, daddy piped in with "But Why?". After giving him 'the look', I kindly suggested that he not try that with me, at which point I received another "But Why?", said with a smirk and then a giggle. Michael then said "Gee, you can give this answer for just about anything, can't you?". I just grimaced and decided to not say anything else so as not to elicit another "But Why?" from him. But, since Alex had observed that daddy was irritating mommy too, he decided that this might be kind of fun! The 2 of them banterred back & forth for a while, attempting to out "But Why?" the other one before dinner finally came to an end - a glorious end!

Needless to say, this was not really the peaceful, relaxing dinner I had hoped for!!!