What is a slave, Amma?

Why is the baby’s poop not white even though the baby only drinks milk?

Why does the toothbrush float, but my sun glasses sink even though they are both made of plastic?

Why is Baba not the president of USA?

Why is it night in India when it is day here?

Why do people die?

These are some of the questions I received in the last 2 hours from you, my dear 3 year old. I cherish these questions, love the curiosity behind them, I try my best to give you truthful answers, adding some fun and a lot of actions, sometimes omitting parts which may not be appropriate for your age.

Last week I got a book from the library – “Do you have a hat?” The book describes different types of hats and introduces well known people from history from Amelia Earhart to Abraham Lincoln wearing hats. For some reason that only preschoolers know, you got obsessed with Lincoln’s hat and wanted to know more about him.

What is a president? Why is he not the president now? Why did he die? Can he come back? What happens when people die? Can I have a hat like that? Can we dress up baby brother as Lincoln for Halloween? Can I see some more pictures of Lincoln? Can I see a video of him?

I decided it was a good idea to show you a video of Lincoln’s biography (just like I show you videos of your latest obsession – volcanoes and Pompeii). We reached to the part where America was having a civil war over slavery. 

You asked me – What is a slave? For the first time, I did not have a reply. I did not honestly know how to answer, what do I tell my little girl about slavery. I switched off the video giving you some excuse. But your question, posed even more questions for me.

I have a feeling you and I will have long constructive conversations about this when you are a grown up. But what should I tell you now? Do I dismiss this question and say this is too much for you at this age?

 I could, but if this question was some scientific fact, I would have beamed with pride and created stories and spent a lot of time explaining it to you.

 So, I have decided I will tell you, maybe in doses- for starters a basic outline of how some people were taken from their own country and brought to another. Then they were forced to work with no freedom or no pay.  They were treated very poorly. Abraham Lincoln and other people decided that keeping slaves is bad behavior. So they fought with people who had slaves and then they freed them.

Let us see how that goes…

Update : It went as well as it can. You now want to fight like Abraham Lincoln against people who do bad behavior and you still want the hat for little brother!