We were on day 7 of the Easter Holidays, in those 7 days I had had 7 sleepless nights from my neurodivergent child, approximately 15 wake ups during those 7 nights (on average 2 a night), I had answered approximately 100 questions (on average of 14 questions per day), probably more actually, and I was knackered so very knackered.

Don’t get me wrong we had had a great week off school – every morning went fine, bedtimes were great but I know exactly how to manage my son and I do it well (even if I do say so myself!). We may have had the odd up and down but on the whole a successful week. In the right situation though my son talks, and talks, and talks, and if there is a silence he will fill it with a question…

What is 2 add 2 add 2? What time is it? How many days is it until Christmas Day? How many days is it to my birthday? How many minutes until we go to bed? And so on and so on.

I can never actually switch off when I am with him. I am completely switched on all the time and its unbelievable how exhausting that is. I can never just drift off and daydream for 5. Even if I go to the toilet he follows me. Even when he is asleep it takes me a while to wind down and relax but he wakes up several times a night so then I’m back on.  He hates being alone. I think that is part of the reason he wakes up so much at night because he is alone in bed and he hates it. But we battle on. So after 7 days I was really starting to feel it.

I’m not getting any younger and I need my sleep. We were at bedtime though so I knew I was about to get some wind down time to myself and we were laid in his bed together reading his one of his bedtime books. He had picked Planet Earth. He loved reading about the Earth, he was always asking questions about it, very valid questions too. Sometimes I felt like he was way older than he was meant to be, he knew too much.

Anyway we were reading this book, after a very long day, and I was desperate to just switch off so I read it fairly quickly and he went to sleep. A couple of hours later I went to sleep and when he woke me in the middle of the night he asked me……..

“Why doesn’t the earth fall down?”

Wow. Had he been thinking about this in his sleep. I mean it wouldn’t surprise me. I obviously had nothing to give him in the middle of the night so I settled him back in to bed and told him we would talk about it in the morning. It took me a while to drift back off because honestly I am not even sure myself why the Earth doesn’t fall down, and I was concerned I couldn’t give the answer justice. And I am fairly intelligent, at least I think I am. I mean I know its something to do with gravity right.

Thankfully I have an older brother who is the most intelligent person I know, so intelligent he is actually a Dr of astrophysics. He once worked at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and he knows everything about the planets so of course I text him the question for his input. And he responded with this….

“Because it’s the Earth that makes things fall downwards. Everything falls towards the Earth (or sun, or moon, or Jupiter)”

Clear as mud!!! After asking for clarification I found out that gravity keeps everything in place. Because the Sun is so big it pulls the Earth into its orbit and the Earth stays in place because it pulls back and it is the perfect push pull force and so it remains in place. Gravity is a force that acts on everything everywhere. That’s the basis of Isaac Newton’s theory of Universal Gravitation. So basically it is gravity.

And if the planet did fall down….i.e it fell out of orbit then Earth would either fly off into space or fly into the sun. If the earth were to fly off into the sun then this would take around 65 days before it collided with the sun – I didn’t tell my son this piece of information as this would then lead to asking how many hours that was, then how many minutes. I just tried my best to explain gravity to him.

And this led me back to the realisation that my son frequently asked questions that other people, people we learn about now, people we class as great pioneers of science and philosophy also asked. Read my blogs such as…

• When the sun sets where does it go?
• Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
• What happens to the world after everyone dies?
• Who do you think is moving my legs?
• When was the Earth first made?
• Who was the first person on the Earth?

All of those are scientific valid questions that relate to scientific theories. Now I am not quite sure Have I got one eye or two eyes?  Have I got a hole in my bum? and Can I plant some custard? fall into the same category of up there with the greatest scientific philosophical questions ever asked but definitely read that if you want a laugh.

All these valid questions at just 5 years old made me realise that in the right setting with the right support my son was destined for great things. And for the first time in ages I felt hopeful, very very tired but hopeful…..