“Mommy, why do you like koala bears so much?” Sunshine asked me. I smiled as I flipped the turn signal and checked my rear view mirror.
“Because they’re cute,” I answered, changing lanes. “One of my babysitters gave me a stuffed koala when I was your age, and he’s gone with me a lot of places since then. And koalas aren’t bears.” I thought of how many times I’ve been told that in person or blog comments or social media posts.
“What are they then?” she asked.
“Marsupials. Like kangaroos.” I stopped at a red light and glanced at her quickly, catching the puzzled look on her face.
“They don’t look like kangaroos,” she said.
“I know, but they have pouches for their babies like kangaroos do, so they’re marsupials.”
“I don’t think so,” she said decisively.
“It’s like orcas. Remember when we did our whale watching trip and learned that orcas aren’t whales? They’re really related to dolphins, right? But because they are big and look like whales, people called them whales for a long time. And now we’re learning that they’re really more like dolphins. It’s the same with koalas. Because they look like bears, people called them koala bears, but now we know that they’re really marsupials, not bears.”
I step on the gas as the light turns green. There’s silence in the truck for a minute as Sunshine processes my answer. I wait for the next question to come.
“I believe you about the whales,” she says seriously, “but not the koalas. I think they’re still bears.”
Conversations like this make me smile. And make a mental note to look up “koalas” and “marsupials” in her Encyclopedia (which is hopefully new enough to back me up!) and perhaps even plan a homeschool unit study for her… 🙂
Do your kids still believe you know all the answers?
14 Comments
Lol! This is too funny! I actually didn’t know the thing about Orcas not being whales. They’re pretty enormous for being closer to dolphins lol. As far as the koalas are concerned, your post supports my theory. She didn’t believe you because of how they look. A koala looks like an adorable little teddy bear, albeit with huge ears and a pretty big nose, lol, but kids tend to believe their eyes more than anything. My son loves Volkswagon Bugs, and every time he sees a car with that rounded body style, he says it’s a bug, even if it’s really a PT Cruiser or there’s a silver Chevy that looks that way in our community. I try to tell him it’s not a bug, but he insists that it is. He’s 3, so to him, anything with a rounded body style is a bug, lol. He is absolutely obsessed with them. Now they are a ton more common than other similar cars, so 90% of the time he says he sees a bug, he does, but he still won’t accept that some of them are not. He’s never mistaken a car without a rounded body for one though. Kids still have to learn not to judge a book by its cover. Just because something looks like something else doesn’t mean it is. A goose looks like a duck with a long neck, well sort of, but that doesn’t make it a duck, lol.
I had no idea about that, Koalas are some of the cutest animals!
I agree!!! I’ve only seen one koala in the wild and he was so much fun to watch. 🙂
Such a sweet conversation. I love how the minds of little ones work 🙂 My youngest, just five, he thinks I have all the answers, but I know the oldest doesn’t, LOL
Enjoy the 5-year-old’s admiration while you can! 🙂 They get old too fast, don’t they. But yes, it’s fun to see how their brains process ideas and what they think about what they learn.
Honestly, I love the conversation. That is too cute. I absolutely loved it! Thanks for sharing it. That is why I love blogging…
I’d share more, but I usually can’t remember them!!! 🙂 I seriously need to have my computer in the car to write out some of the hilarious things they say. I have a terrible memory for spoken things (gotta write it down or read it to remember it).
I love koala bears. They’re so cute 🙂
I actually knew that about koalas because you wrote about it or tweeted it before. I believe you. But I didn’t know anything about orcas actually. That’s interesting.
Yes, I thought it was very interesting about orcas too. And about science – we think we know everything and then we learn a bit more and have to change our thinking. 🙂
Ack, science! lol. We sometimes call things ‘Scientific Law’ which sounds like it’s written in stone, especially to a non-scientist, or the term ‘Scientific Fact’ is used, and both especially to someone who is not a scientist sound so permanent and written in stone, as if they’d been proven, yet we are changing laws and facts all the time because we disprove them. I don’t think anything in science is entirely foolproof. Don’t get me wrong, I love science, but I don’t tend to take it literally most of the time.
Amanda – I agree. We need to recognize that science is changeable and that we learn new things every day that disproves previous scientific theories. Just have to remember that we used to think the earth was the centre of the universe to put it into perspective! 🙂 Or that Pluto used to be a planet… all sorts of things have changed as we learn more. 🙂
I didn’t know that Koalas were not bears, I’m a little sad now. haha. They’re so cute, but I wouldn’t get too close to them. Unlike killer whales, I’ve been close and they seem gentle enough 😉
Yes, koalas are very cute and I’ve actually never been close to one, but I’ve heard they can be grumpy. 🙂 Orcas are amazing – we did a whale watching tour here a few years ago and they are such incredible, graceful animals.