“Why is there Daylight Savings Time, Dad?”
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Listen, I consider myself quite smart. I’m not saying I’m a genius, but I have gotten through life with relatively few “oh my god, I’m a moron” moments.
That is, until I had kids. Then suddenly all of my glaring areas of ignorance came slamming to the forefront of my consciousness.
Next thing I know, I’m Googling stuff I’d never thought (or cared) about and finding myself incredibly confused—and sometimes bored to death. But these are our kids, right? We have to give it a go.
Talking to my friends Felicia and Sean, I realized I’m not alone. Together, we compiled this list of completely ridiculous things we had no idea we knew nothing about.
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1. Why is the sky blue?
At first, you think your kids are screwing with you. After all, this is the stupidest question you’ve ever heard. Why is the sky blue? Because it is! Something about the ocean or the atmosphere. I don’t know. Then you realize you have no clue why the sky is blue. You’ve been living your whole life just accepting it. Suddenly nothing is ever the same again. Why IS the sky blue?! Why is the ocean blue? Why are we human? Is anything real?
A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. When we look towards the sun at sunset, we see red and orange colours because the blue light has been scattered out and away from the line of sight.
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Does this help? Let’s be honest… not much.
2. Why do we have an appendix if we don’t need it?
This often comes up when someone you know almost dies of an infected appendix and everyone gets super worked up over it. Your kid asks what an appendix is (you say, “I don’t know”) and why it’s there and you realize you’re totally adrift. Is it attached to the spleen? Didn’t they teach you this in school? They must have. Why don’t you remember?
In plant-eating vertebrates, the appendix is much larger and its main function is to help digest a largely herbivorous diet…Biologists believe the human appendix is a vestigial organ left behind from a plant-eating ancestor.
Alrighty then.
3. Why do grown-ups have armpit hair?
You’re all prepared to explain why kids don’t have body hair, and how it grows in during puberty. You’re not embarrassed, and you’re not going to let your kid go into that awful “growing up” class at school unarmed and naive.
But he doesn’t want to know why he doesn’t have it. He wants to know why Dad does… Good freaking question, son. I don’t know. Maybe something about pheromones and attracting a mate?
Your son looks irritated and annoyed. You’ve shown your cards, he knows you’re ignorant.
The evolutionary significance of human underarm hair is still debated. It may naturally wick sweat or other moisture away from the skin, aiding ventilation. Colonization by odor-producing bacteria is thereby transferred away from the skin.
Ha! Not even Google knows! Suck it, science.
4. Why do men have nipples?
No, “foreplay” is not an appropriate answer.
Brace yourselves for a low blow, tough guy. Nipples remind us that gender is anything but clear-cut, especially in utero. Whatever your sex, everyone starts off as a woman in the womb.
For the first several weeks a developing embryo follows a “female blueprint,” from reproductive organs to nipples. Only after about 60 days does the hormone testosterone kick in (for those of us with a Y chromosome), changing the genetic activity of cells in the genitals and brain. But by then those mammary papillae aren’t going anywhere.
Well, huh.
5. Why is there Daylight Savings Time?
The mother of all questions.
If it’s Springtime, try not to curse after your child asks you this question. Yes, it sucks. And no, we don’t know why it exists.
The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called “Summer Time” in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Countries have different change dates.
I don’t know, I’m not sure that explains it…
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What are the hardest questions your kids have asked you? Do you pretend to know the answers, or do you Google them together?
I guess the ultimate lesson here is that parents don’t know everything. Whether or not you think your kids should learn that lesson right now is another conversation altogether.
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Also read: 33 Ridiculous Things You Had No Idea You Had to Teach Your Kids
Photo: Flickr/ClickFlashPhotos / Nicki V
Telling your kids half truths or old beliefs is one way of shutting them up. I do know that the latest research about the digestive system show that appendix is actually a necessary part of the body, it holds the emergency store of digestive components. And daylight savings time is actually part of war time from the second world war. It was adopted several years after the war. It was in place to add more daylight time to regular working hours.
actually, although Daylight savings in the US started in 1918, one of Daylight Savings first proponents was Benjamin Franklin, who in 1784 saw that changing the times in summer would save candles, as people would wake earlier, allowing them to take advantage of the sunlight in the mornings, and it means there would be more sunlight in the evening, meaning people wouldn’t need candles (or lights) until later.
We love daylight savings here in Australia, as if we didn’t have it, the sun would start coming up around 4am in summer time.
I always thought the sky was blue because it reflected water! But that was interesting.
I believe that Day-Light Saving time is actually rooted to a long history of farming and maximizing it during the warmer months. – My Dad was a farmer and this is what he told me.