QuOTD: What is “quoted?”

QuOTD, sometimes pronounced “quoted,” is what we call the Question of the Day. As we're hiking along the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin we have a lot of time to talk and think. Sometimes the girls come up with some good, weird, or out-of-the-blue questions, almost always unexpected. In the QuOTD blog posts, we'll be picking one of those questions from our kids during the day and sharing it, as well as our answers.

When answering honest questions, we feel it's important to give honest answers. Sometimes this means we say “I don't know.” I know that flies in the face of some experts who believe parents should always have an answer to every question so you establish dominance and authority, but we believe in being honest and straightforward (most of the time . . . Santa Claus still exists in their minds!).

Because Nicole and I are so educated and well traveled we can often extrapolate a possible answer, and so phrase our responses as: I don't know for sure, but it could be ________. Other times we turn the questions back on the kids with a “what do you think,” even if the answer is pretty simple and straightforward in our minds. This increases their critical thinking abilities, a skill they can utilize for the rest of their lives.

So when you see a QuOTD blog title, I hope you'll enjoy some of the questions (and answers) as much as we do on the trail. And maybe, just maybe, it'll give you something to think about, too.