Finding Answers

Yesterday afternoon and evening were pretty slow around our house. Mark is travelling, and the girls and I were planning on going to our community outdoor concert, but the rain came and we got stuck inside. As a consolation, I told the girls we could have movie night. I picked Finding Nemo. Before I get too far into our night, I have to flash back to four years ago when my mom and I were watching Emme down at Hartfield. Shenley had left Finding Nemo for us to let Emme watch, so we put in the movie and all watched it. After the movie was done and Shenley was back, Emme started asking "Who's Coral?" and "What happened to Coral?" If it's been awhile since you've seen the movie, Coral is only in the very first scene of the movie, and it's Nemo's mom that gets eaten by the barracuda. Anyway, Shen then informs us that Emme has never actually seen the true beginning of the movie. She's always skipped over the part where Coral gets eaten and starts the movie with Nemo bouncing around shouting, "First day of school, first day of school!" Whoops...it looked like my mom and I just gave Emme a little education in the world of big fish, little fish.

Now, back to last night. I considered opting out of the first part but then decided to just show the girls the beginning part with Coral. I didn't think I'd spend the rest of the night and into today talking about it. During and since the movie, there have been constant questions about things like...

Nina: What happened to Coral?
Me: The big fish got her
Nina: Why did the big fish eat Coral and all the eggs?
Me: Big fish have to eat too, and sometimes they eat smaller fish or fish eggs
Nina: Why were Coral and Marlin excited to be parents but all their eggs got eaten?
Me: Parents are normally excited to have a baby, and most of the fish eggs did get eaten, but remember the entire rest of the movie? It was all about the little fish that surived!
Nina: Why do sharks like the smell of blood?
Me: It makes them hungry.
Nina: Why do fish bleed?
Me: Sometimes they get cuts and bleed like we do.
Nina: Why did Nemo disobey and touch the boat?
Me: He didn't want his friends to think he was afraid to do what they were doing.
Nina: Why do fish in a tank want to get out?
Me: They'd probably rather be swimming in a big ocean or a lake or something

It keeps going and going and going. So what's the appropriate filter? As evidenced in my post earlier this week, I clearly wasn't honest about the chipmunk. I'm not honest about deer either. Nina sees them dead along side the road and tells me that they're just sleeping also. Once we happened to be driving by just as the road kill crew was hoisting a dead deer into their truck by a cable around it's neck. That provoked some questions which I also tried to deflect with not completely honest answers.

But after my honesty approach with Finding Nemo, I'm starting to feel a little like Pheobe in the Friends episode when she's singing to children about Barnyard Animals, and her song goes like this...
Oh the cow in the meadow goes "moo"
Oh the cow in the meadow goes "moo"
Then the farmer hits him on the head and grinds him up
And that's how we get hamburgers.
(In case you forgot that one, you can listen HERE.)