Making It Up As I Go

“Mom – Are an octopus and a squid friends?”

So this was the first question asked of me today after picking the boys up from school. It’s a great example of the types of questions I get asked on an hourly basis. My answer to this one ended up including an explanation of what an oceanographer is, and what squids eat. You might think that perhaps I’m giving them too much information, but since most of their marine life knowledge comes from watching Spongebob Squarepants, I felt it best to be thorough. In case you’re wondering, thanks to my son’s Spongebob obsession I’ve also had to explain that while sponges do exist, they actually don’t wear pants nor do they live in pineapples. Jake and I also have a recurring argument about whether or not Squidward is actually an octopus (he claims his head isn’t the right shape to be a squid). In any case, it’s become apparent that I probably should have taken Physics or Astronomy instead of Understanding Virus’ to meet the University’s science requirement (although, at the time, the high percentage of football players in Understanding Virus’ certainly seemed to signal that I had made an excellent choice). I’ve recently been asked about electricity, volcanos, whales, space exploration, gravity, martians, and why we need air to breathe and fish don’t (which resulted in quite the biology lecture from Steph on lungs and oxygen, btw). While I try to base my explanations on known scientific facts, there are definitely moments where I haven’t a damn clue what the answers are. Also the limited vocabulary of a four and three year old complicate things (what's a lung? what does oxygen taste like? see my point...) Unfortunately the boys don’t ask me about tax deductions, investment strategies, or whether or not Emmitt Smith is a better dancer than Mario Lopez. These are questions I can handle. Questions on baleen and plankton – not so much.