Craig Daily Press

Craig — I haven’t decided yet whether children oversimplify things or whether adults complicate them.

I think it’s a little bit of both, but it sure is difficult trying to explain to a child why things need to be more complicated when their version has a tendency to make so much sense.

Our bedtime ritual generally mutates into some off-the-wall discussions, but usually starts simply with an overview of what’s in store for the next day.

Hearing there was no school cheered 7-year-old Katie immensely, but when she learned that meant a day with the babysitter, her joy was slightly dampened.

“Why can’t you just stay at home with us, and we can play?” she asked.

“Because I have to work.” (They’ve heard that too many times).

“But why do you have to work?” Katie said, genuinely confused.

I truly thought this would be an easy conversation.

“Because that’s how people get money,” I told her.

In a world where money comes in envelopes from grandpa or is found under the pillow simply by sacrificing a tooth, working for pay is a foreign concept.

Katie scoffed at the need for money, so I explained.

“Honey, if we didn’t have money, we wouldn’t have electricity.”

Then she explained.

“We could just use candles.”

“We wouldn’t have heat to stay warm.”

She had an answer almost before I finished my explanation.

“We could just get lots and lots of blankets and put them on top of us.”

I was struggling, so I aimed lower.

“If we didn’t have money, then we wouldn’t have television.”

“We could put on plays every night.”

“What about food, Katie? If we didn’t have money, we wouldn’t have any food?”

“Then we’d just plant corn like the Pilgrims did.”

No more school for her.

Since when does a second-grader have an answer for everything? And since when can’t I work my way around that?

“No clothes.”

“We’d just make them. That would be fun.”

She actually was bringing me around a little. I was starting to really realize how much we complicate matters. The older we get, it seems, the more complex we make a situation. Then, I suppose, we hit an age where we realize the futility (and complete waste of time) of making simple things complicated.

We stop playing games and start saying what we mean.

Sports and movies stop being hobbies, and we realize the sheer joy of creating instead of buying.

Staying up later becomes less appealing than getting up earlier.

I admit, I did let my mind wander down the path of the simple life Katie was drawing.

Then I ran into pesky little walls.

I can’t sew.

I’m a danger to all growing things.

I’d die spending a day bent over a washboard.

It may be complicated, but I’m OK exchanging the things I am good at for dollars, which I trade for the things I’m not.

Sometimes things are complicated for a reason.

Sometime later, Katie and I were discussing why I couldn’t just leave her and her sister in the car while I ran in for groceries.

“It’s too cold to leave you in the car.”

Simple and slick, Katie said, “You could leave the keys in.”

Getting much more complicated.

“Honey, what if someone jumped in and took our car and drove away with you in it?”

A full second didn’t pass before she had an answer.

“You could just call Farmer’s Help Point and they’ll fix it. Really, mom. I heard it on TV.”

Yet another argument for the simple life. We obviously could use a little less television.