why?

In life, especially when you have a routine, you don't think much about the things you do. Sometimes you do things because that's always the way you've done it and sometimes you just do it because it was an un-conscious decision that you never bothered to change.  It wasn't until a few months ago that I started re-evaluating a lot of the things I do in life because of Liam's simple curious question of, "Why?"

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For awhile now Liam has been questioning everything we do and up until this one instance I never thought twice about it.  Things like, "What are you doing guys?", "Why are you doing that?", "What is that?", all things that you expect a 2 year old to ask to help them understand the way life works.

However, one day as I was putting on makeup, instead of apply foundation with me like he usually does he asked, "What are you doing?" and I said, "Putting on makeup."  He looked at me puzzled and asked, "Why?" and since I was so concentrated on not messing up my eyeliner I annoyingly said, "Just because."  He paused for a minute and he asked again, "But, why?"  He continued to ask why until I gave him a legit answer and in an effort to get him to stop asking, I thought about my real response and found myself telling him, "I don't know why I put makeup on, but sometimes it just makes me feel better." He was pleased with that answer and went along his merry way to go play with LEGOs.

After answering the question truthfully I realized that his simple question of why unleashed a very deep answer that showed a little of my insecurities. I didn't realize that this routine thing I do everyday was something I did to mask some of my imperfections and at that moment I didn't see Liam as my son, but as a little Yoda who has wisdom behind his curiosity. The questions that we get from kids on a daily,  if not hourly basis, can sometimes be exhausting but I've learned that these questions not only help him understand the reason why people do things, but gives me some self-awareness. In life sometimes we have tunnel vision and can't see the real reason why we do the things we do. Even if you don't have your own kid, being around them and their questions will make you a little more aware of things that you might be blinded to.  Just answering their questions might show something about yourself that you don't see and really make you look at yourself in a completely different light.