Skunks

Emma has a fascination with skunks. They scare her but she is fascinated by them at the same time. She thinks that there are essentially hoards of skunks outside as long as it is dark outside and they just roam around all over the place.

One morning she woke up way too early for my tastes and came down stairs. I told her it wasn't morning yet and to go back up stairs to her room. She countered with, "Mom it is light outside. The sun is up." I countered her counter with, "It isn't all they way up." Then she asked, "Are there still skunks outside?" I have never been so tempted to lie to her. I couldn't do it so I quasi-lied to her (which might be the same thing as a lie but I didn't want to get into an indepth conversation about skunks at that hour) so I told her "I don't know." That satisfied her and she went back to her bedroom to play.

Tonight we went to a friends house for a BBQ and we left late, just as the sun was setting. As we got close to the car Emma said, "Mom we got to go, the sun is setting! Are the skunks coming out?" I don't remember how I responded mostly because it would most likely be a lie. I have tried to explain that the ground isn't saturated with skunks at night and she isn't catching on. So I have given up and just go along with it and figure some day she will figure out that skunks aren't a significant population.