"What's the phone number for Heaven?"
People on Reddit were asked: "What other surprisingly deep questions have you been asked by kids?" These are some of the best answers.
2/26 My daughter came to me and said, "Daddy, I have a problem and maybe you can help me out with it. How do I know that I'm real and not just a dream of someone else?"
The question caught me off guard, but I decided to introduce Descartes to her and said that there was no real way of knowing, but that there was a guy who used to think about these types of things and he said, "I think, therefore I am" and that means that if you are thinking and can create, then it is the best proof that you exist.
She countered with "How do I know that it's not just the dream making me think that I am thinking?"
At that point, I knew that I wasn't going to win and told her that thinking was still the closest to proof that we have. It contented her enough and she went back to watching iCarly.
thinwhiteduke99
3/26 My cousin was 7-8ish when she came up to me and asked "Since I know English and think in English that means that someone who knows French thinks in French too right?"
I said yes and then what she said made me rather sad. "Then even telepathy couldn't stop different people from fighting and hurting each other...."
Nezumify
4/26 When I was a teacher, one of my 1st graders asked "Do you have any kids?" After I said that I didn't and I didn't even have a wife or a girlfriend, he said "That's too bad. Do you know how I know you would be a good dad? You never hit me."
God, I spent so many lunch hours crying in the staff bathroom at that job.
elliotrosewater
5/26 My 6 year old son asked me why when he farts, spiders run away.
-Teekey-
6/26 My cousin asked me (he was in 1st or 2nd grade) when we were sitting in my grandma's garden (my guess was that he read/heard it somewhere but it was still amazing that a 7 year old was thinking about such things.)
'Mike? How would you know that you are happy if you were never sad before?'
'Well you wouldn't really'
'So it's a good thing people are also sad?'
I didn't really know what to say. It's just I did not really realize that everything is relative till I was much much older than him.
Joke_Choke
7/26 My four year old nephew looked out the window when we were driving cross country:
'That's my world out there, isn't it?'
iam4real
8/26 "What if when you die, part of you is still alive and you just have to sit there underground forever?" Asked by a little four year old at a summer camp I was working at. Scared my ultra religious friend.
applemint
9/26 My brother was always very interested in the consciousness of other children when he was a toddler. Whenever there was a baby around, he'd walk up to them and their mother, frown down at the kid when they were shown to him, look at the mother and ask "Do they know they're alive yet?"
He creeped a lot of my aunts and my mother's friends out. Never got a good answer, either.
[deleted]
10/26 At an Italian restaurant with my ten-year-old last week: I ask him if he likes his food. He nods, pauses, looks down and says "I wonder what my arm tastes like?" He then licks his arm, looks off in the distance, and says "Tastes...neutral."
agrammalech
11/26 Apparently when I was 4 years old, I had this conversation with my dad.
"Dad, are there infinite words?"
"No, son, but there are infinite numbers."
"Well if there is a word for every number, then there must be infinite words."
Then I walked away and left my dad mind-blown.
Waja_Wabit
12/26 My 5 yr old little girl once said "If plants need rain and sun to grow, and rainbows are made of light and water, are rainbows plant food?"
some_body_else
13/26 My four year old cousin asked is apparently very interested in infinity. As a mathematician, I tried to explain things as best I could for him. One day he sits down with me, draws a circle and says:
"Okay, so there are infinity lines from the middle of this circle to the sides right?"
"Yes"
"But what if we extend those lines out? is there more infinity?"
[Kid], Cantor went mad about this [stuff]. You're four. Go play with some Hot Wheels. I can't wait to see what he does when he grows up. Fingers crossed for mathematician!
mathjokes
14/26 As a teacher I get quite a few like that. My favorite was when a 5 yr old boy asked me "Why don't we just leave them alone, and then they can leave us alone?" when talking about wars. Or "Why do they hate us? If someone wants to hurt where I live then they must hate us."
[deleted]
15/26 "Why is the moon called the moon?" took me a while and a couple of science books to answer
"Why is the Sun called the Sun?" was similarly perplexing while "Why is a fence called a fence?" returned a surprisingly interesting answer.
Mr_A
16/26 My 5 year old daughter. Explained gravity in it's simplest form to her when she was 4. She asked about stones falling to the ground. So explained this to her a bit in a very simple way, thinking 'maybe a bit to much information for a 4 year old".
Fast forward when she was 5, almost exactly 1 year later (and we didn't discuss gravity in the meanwhile) and we were driving home. Suddenly she asks me "daddy, does light fall down as well?" After picking my jaw from the floor I checked and asked if she meant the same thing as we discussed a year before about stones falling to the ground. Yes, that's what she meant. She applied gravity to light, all by her self!
I was beaming with joy behind the wheel and was oh so proud :-) She later told me she wants to be an astronaut, discover the end of the universe and take me there to show it to me. Atta girl!
reddwarf666
17/26 My girlfriend was on a road trip and her (then) 5 year old nephew asks her "Are we here yet?"
A seemingly innocent mixup of words caused a deep philosophical awakening that was very hard to explain.
tarot15
18/26 After an overly enthusiastic salesperson greeted my 4 year old niece, took her hand, and started walking away with her my horrified brother had to talk to her about "stranger danger". This led to some inevitable questions like... "Daddy if I see a stranger can I kill them?"
atemporalsquid
19/26 "What if the light at the end of the tunnel when you die is just you popping out of a vagina in your next life?"
[deleted]
20/26 "How do I know we all see the same colors? What if my red isn't your red but actually your red is my orange?"
[deleted]
21/26 When I was 4, my dad picked me up from preschool, and took me to Big Boy's. As we're sitting at our table, I said "Why are we here, Daddy?"
"Well, we're here to have lunch!" he replied. "No, no. Why are we here ON THIS EARTH?"
Kateysomething
22/26 My 4 year old son had just lost a bunny, and was really freaked out about dying. One night we were laying in my bed hanging out and he is quiet for a while. After about 5 minutes of thinking he goes "Mama, will you hold my hand when I'm dying so I don't get scared?" I still tear up thinking about it.
Scrabbleurface
23/26 My younger brother once asked me (when he was four, mind you) "Why do we have two eyes if we only see one thing?" It amazes me what kids will think of.
ArcticZen
24/26 Coaching a u-10 soccer team: "Coach! What is the opposite of time?"
What in the world is the opposite of time!?
uclastarr
25/26 My son once asked me "What does purple do?" I have yet to come up with a reasonable answer.
downvotesyourmadness
26/26 My son, then just shy of four, asked me, "Why do trees exist in this world?"
I tried to explain to him in as basic terms as I could why plants grow, and that some plants grow tall so they can get more sunlight, and so on.
He cut me short, asking, "Is it because they like to grow?" I thought that was a very elegant answer.
because_its_there
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.