3-Word Wisdom 25: Share your knowledge

When my children were young, I did my best to provide thoughtful answers their relentless questions. I was a teacher after all, and I prided myself on having an explanation for every inquiry they threw my way. When Daughter questioned the spelling of her name – others with the same name used the customary spelling – I managed to convince her that hers was the phonetically correct version, and her like-named friends were the victims of an unfortunate misspelling. I loved the challenge of providing an answer to their queries, and in time was regarded by the kids and their friends as the 80’s and 90’s’s equivalent of Wikipedia. Thankfully their questions were usually not math related, and I was masterful at deflecting the unanswerable ones by redirecting them with a question of my own…. “Why to you think the ocean water is blue in Hawaii and green in California?” I was good!

Of course, even the best and the brightest - and those of us who pretend we are - have a few gaps in our information stores. Occasionally I was at a loss to provide an acceptable response to one of Son or Daughter’s questions. I needed an escape clause, and I came up with the perfect disclaimer. I declared that there were "17 things" that I didn’t know. From that point forward, when their question had me stumped, the kids were delighted. “That’s one of the 17 things!” they would exclaim. What followed were great moments of discovery as we shared the joy of learning something new - together. The kids relished the opportunity to uncover one of the 17 things, and with such a random number, I managed to retain my dignity – and my title as the uber-super-answer mom - long enough to survive the Childhood Inquisition. Of course, as they each reached the age of seventeen, Son and Daughter concluded that I actually knew nothing. I can now confirm that understanding the psyche of teenagers is definitely one of the 17 things that I did not know!

My now adult children still come to Hubby and me with questions – about life, love and careers. They no longer need answers, but thankfully, they value our perspective. They are charting their own courses now, and I cherish our conversations. If they ask me a question, I will share my knowledge and experience – but not necessarily an answer - that is now up to them.

Today’s 3-word wisdom: Share your knowledge. Life is filled with teachable moments, and each of us is an educator. Cherish the inquisitive children in your life and help them discover the wonders of the world around them.

Daughter and Son, when they thought Mom knew everything!