How I answer my 3 year old's gazillion questions

I have found, in my long experience parenting my one verbal child (saracasm noted), that her questions can fit into five categories.
1. Natural childish curiosity
2. Arguing
3. Not listening
4. Mental laziness
5. Wanting to talk

So here is why "because I said so" is never said in my house. Before I go too far with this, know that "because I said so" is fully acceptable as a parental authority figure. I just don't use it.

A natural childish curiosity question:
H: Mom, those horses are wearing coats. Why?
Me: I know Hannah! They are wearing them because it's cold outside and they need a coat just like you.

An aruging question:
H: Mom, can I have gum? (right before dinner)
Me: No, it's almost dinner.
H: Why?

A not listening/mentally lazy/wanting to talk question:
H: Mom, there are the horses again, why are they wearing coats?

As you can see, I am perfectly happy to answer a curiosity question. I love it in fact.

An arguing question is another story. Once we established a rule (I make sure it's established i.e. no gum right before dinner), and I said "no", any "why" that comes out of Hannah's mouth is arguing which is unacceptable. So when I say no to all the gum/candy requests, the second she says "Why?" (and when I know she knows the "why" which is right after I told her the first time, like six months ago, I don't feel the need to keep re-establishing a rule. She needs to remember it from back in June), I simply say, "No aruging in this house, if you would like to continue arguing, I will (fill in the blanks for discipline decided upon)."

A not listening/mentally lazy/wanting to talk question is the best. Because that's when I simply turn it back around to her. Every single time. I told her back in October about the horses wearing coats because it was cold. When she asks me about it, I say "Hannah, you tell me" and then we can have the real discussion she was wanting (and sometimes she comes up with something hilarious and we end up cracking up).

Or if I'm reading a story to her and she asks me "what happened?" "why?" "who's that?" I tell her, "listen with your ears to the story and you will hear the answer" and then I will re-read the passage (or not if I don't want to).

A mentally lazy/not listening question is usually really good for establishing good listening and critically thinking skills. When that happens, which is probably the most frequent, I usually say "Sweetheart, were you listening to me? What did I say?"
If she can repeat it back, she was just being lazy (or just wanting to talk and in that case, we talk). If she can't, she wasn't listening. At that point, I tell her I'm not going to repeat myself and she needs to listen the first time.

This morning, as I was getting the girls around to go to work, I told them to put on their shoes because we needed to leave for Nancy's (their babysitter).
Hannah said, "Why?" when she knows full well I'm going to work.
I said, "Well, why do you think?" (Also, please know that my questions are not spoken back to Hannah impatiently, I really want her to think about what she asked me what the answer might be.)

Hannah dramatically put her hands on her head and said, "Mom, I just can't think any more."

Ha.

Parents, you really should try it. It's much better than answering the same questions over and over, it eliminates half of them as arguing, it makes for much better conversation AND it will lead to kids who can critically think.

Aren't you glad you aren't my kid?