Calvin and Hobbes is the best cartoon that ever was, hands down.  I miss it terribly to this day.  One of the best characters was his Dad, always responding to Calvin’s questions with absolute gibberish answers.  Neatorama posted a link to a collection of these exchanges, awesome answers to fundamental questions like “Why does the sky turn red when the sun sets?” and “Why does ice float?”.

As I read them I realize I must have been influenced by him in my own parenting.  For instance, yesterday morning Cael was looking for Quinn upstairs.  He asked me where he was and I told him the monkeys came and took him away.  He laughed and said No….

I persisted, and said yep, the flying monkeys came right through that window and took Quinn, happens all of the time, I said.

His eyes grew round and he was stammering something when Nikki came to his rescue (probably wanting to head off all of the sleepless nights due to nightmares) and told him I was kidding (with a reproachful look in my direction).  He wandered away, muttering in a half-relieved tone, clearly relieved to know there aren’t flying monkeys that remove children from their homes.

Nikki and I don’t see eye to eye on these things, it seems.  I think it’s important for children to know that there are things we can’t explain in this world, even if those things aren’t technically true, or real.  Besides, I just like messing with their brains.  It makes me happy.  That must be the way that Bill Watterson felt when he made Calvin’s Dad that way…