Why red herring is important between discussions.

My daughter: Papa! See this is my name and this is the name of my Sir.

I: No my little princess!! This is our surname.

My daughter: oh ok!! Who is that?

I: Ummm... (No answer) Wow!! You're wearing a beautiful dress today...

@Alice because of her age and difficulty in explaining it

@amitgupta
But what's so wrong about explaining what a surname is?

@Michelle I always encourage her to ask questions and answer them in simple language. But I couldn't think a good answer this time. She is 3.5 years old.

@amitgupta
Just say that everyone has at least two names. A first name and a surname, and that some people even have a middle name. Then explain what each of them are, then explain how your entire family as the same surname

@Alice we should not judge all the kids same.

@Michelle I'll try. Though it is a bit complex in my case as I share the same surname of my father. But I've changed it for my daughter.

What , i think, I can tell her is that she has two names: first and second name. And then when she will grow and hear more complex names then I'll refine my explanation just like another version of a software :)

I know I'll get flamed for overreacting here but to my mind this is an example of how parents enforce gender role stereotyping. You've basically told your daughter not to ask complicated questions, distracted her with fashion and praised her for looking pretty.

(I'm sure this wasn't your intention.)

@DeadInside hahaha. I never thought about that. And I doubt parents really do it.

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh stoppppppppp
Pleaseeeeeeeee
@DeadInside

He's just distracted his daughter because he didn't feel like answering a question like people often do with children. Can we please not trivialise real social issues by providing examples like this to support them? @DeadInside

Even though I'm sure that's not what your intention was :) @DeadInside

@sabbonaut agree. It's quite challenging. That's why we planned to start a YouTube channel of questions kids generally ask and how challenging it is for elders to answer in simple terms.

@sabbonaut the only problem can be language. But I'll try to put some subtitles.