I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views.
I know a person small-
Hhe keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
He sends'em abroad on his own affairs,
From the second he opens his eyes-
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
From The Elephant's Child
2 comments:
LOL, you poor thing... I remember this with Erik and Luey, it's amazing at first, and you love having the mind boggling questions to answers, and then it gets a little tedious and then you move into the *reefing hair from scalp* phase...
Bryn isn't there yet, LOL, I thank the gods EVERY DAY...
We've been waiting for it... too many daycare kids over the years rather broke the enchantment before La even started it... ;-)
I only feel like I'm slightly a bad mum if I answer the 7 millionth "why?" in relation to such puzzling mysteries of the universe like "please pick up your stuff" with less sensible answers than the first 7 million (because your toys will get broke if they're stepped on, I need to clean, we want to keep our stuff nice, we need to keep it tidy so we can find it next time, the puppy will chew it and you'll be sad...) with rather tongue in cheek, "Because I asked you NICELY instead of sticking you upside down to the ceiling where you can't create any MORE mess!" (Which is followed by hysterical bouts of giggling and, "WHY?" "I don't know La, silly mummy, next time I'll stick you to the ceiling straight away...") At least the nonsense serves to make him laugh while picking up... PMSL
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