MARK MY WORD: IN OUR HOME, THERE ARE LOTS OF WHYS, BUT FEW ANSWERS

Life is full of whys.

It's particularly so for parents who have to endure the constant questioning of their young sons and daughters.

Our youngest daughter, Bailey, is sliding down the slope toward age 3. For her, the journey is full of whys.

The other night, Joni asked Bailey not to put her foot in the plate of food.

"Why?" Bailey asked as her foot hovered over the food.

"We wouldn't want to eat your foot by mistake," I replied.

Bailey soon lost interest in the whole issue and moved on to other questions.

She wanted to know why daddy has never worn a dress?

"Men don't wear dresses," I explained. OK, some men wear dresses, but I figure 2-year-olds need clear-cut gender definitions.

Bailey also inquired as to why mommy lost her car keys the other day.

That was a question we assumed Bailey could answer. She often makes off with the car keys, hoarding them in some secret place.

The other morning, I had already left the house when Joni discovered her car keys were missing.

After frantically searching in all the usual places, Joni called me. I returned home and ferried the girls to school and Joni to work.

Then, I had two additional sets of the car keys made. I figured we couldn't lose that many sets of car keys at any one time.

That night, Bailey mysteriously found Joni's original set of car keys.

I'm convinced it's not just our minds that we lose as parents. We also lose almost anything that isn't tied down.

It would be great if we could just put beepers on everything. That way we wouldn't have to dig frantically through the couch, scattered toys, piles of clothing and assorted mail every morning to find life's important items.

Those items, of course, are car keys, shoes and socks.

All of these items have a way of getting lost. Bailey and her older sister, Becca, often have no clue as to where they left their shoes.

For all they know, the shoes could be on top of the refrigerator. I often do find the footwear in the car where they left them the previous day.

Socks are like ghosts in our home. At times, they are practically invisible.

No matter how many loads of laundry Joni does, we never seem to have enough clean socks. I'm convinced that they slip out of the house once we put them in the dryer.

Of course, you can avoid all this consternation. Just have your children wear sandals to school.

Even our telephones get misplaced from time to time by our children. When that occurs, we dash around the house hurriedly trying to locate the device so we can answer the call before the caller hangs up.

Fortunately, one of our base phone units has a locator button. Press it, and the phone emits a steady beep. That beep has come in handy more than once.

Parents have their share of whys too.

Why is it that little girls like to paint with lipstick?

The other day, Bailey used Joni's red lipstick to paint a section of our hallway wall and a bathroom door.

We cleaned up the mess, but that still left a section of the wall looking rather pink.

Life's little messes generate plenty of whys for which we never seem to get any good answers.

There are times we all can't help but ask why, like when an opposing pitcher walks Mark McGwire for the umteenth time.

Sometimes it feels good to ask why even if you know the answer.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.