I think that if parents do not know the answer to a question, they should look it up and learn it with the child. The whole internet is at their fingertips. It can become a learning experience for both the child and the adult.
I realize it’s no longer a concern for parents now, but the vast majority of people who ever parented did not have access to the Internet. ARPA has been around since 1969, but the Internet has only been easily accessible to the masses since 1993 (when the Mosaic browser came out). This may seem shocking, but there are, in fact, Lesswrongers who did not have the Internet when they were children.
I recall my parents buying a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica around 1985 or so for a cost of around $400, which is about $840 dollars today—not an expense everyone can afford.
So while it is, in general, a good idea not to provide mysterious answers to children’s questions, it would not have been reasonable to expect parents to run to the library every time their child had a question they did not know the answer to, which is what this would actually have required only 1 generation ago.
Editing to add: Parents should also not be ashamed to answer “I don’t know” to children’s questions. This is much better than providing fake explanations.
I realize it’s no longer a concern for parents now, but the vast majority of people who ever parented did not have access to the Internet. ARPA has been around since 1969, but the Internet has only been easily accessible to the masses since 1993 (when the Mosaic browser came out). This may seem shocking, but there are, in fact, Lesswrongers who did not have the Internet when they were children.
I recall my parents buying a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica around 1985 or so for a cost of around $400, which is about $840 dollars today—not an expense everyone can afford.
So while it is, in general, a good idea not to provide mysterious answers to children’s questions, it would not have been reasonable to expect parents to run to the library every time their child had a question they did not know the answer to, which is what this would actually have required only 1 generation ago.
Editing to add: Parents should also not be ashamed to answer “I don’t know” to children’s questions. This is much better than providing fake explanations.
True, I did not think of that. Now that I am looking back, attempting to remember, I do not believe we had a computer in the house until 1998.