“Why oh Why Delilah”
Song by Tom Jones…years ago 
Another vote here for turning it around into “well, why do you think it is?” - my kids drive me mad with Whys sometimes, but the idea of stifling their curiosity horrifies me; ‘Why’ is infinitely better than “Who cares?”
Louis CK does this routine where his kid asks him why and he keeps giving her answers. It’s really funny.
It starts out with the kid asking like why it’s raining.
His knowledge runs out after about the third question.
“Why?”
“Because water vapor goes up”
Why?
“That’s it. That’s the end of my knowledge.”
He says about an hour later, he’s into a philosphical discussion. . .
“Why?”
Because something either exists or it doesn’t exist.
“Why?”
Because some things ARE and some things ARE NOT.
“Why?”
A description doesn’t do it justice.
It’s not necessarily at that website, but he has a bunch of video clips and I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. It was what he closed his HBO standup routine with, so I think it’s his “big hit” if you will.
When I was in my “Why?” phase (or more, accurately, a “what’s that?” phase), my mother’s stock end-of-the-line answer was “it’s for decoration,” which I apparently accepted as a satisfactory answer. I get to use it right back on her now when she asks me about something on the computer or something Japan-related that was in the news.
And here I was trying to delve into the Biblical tale of Samson and Delilah for insight, when all along the answer was pop culture. Totally wrong category. :smack:
I raised that kid. Oy! :rolleyes:
Forgot to add…when I was a kid, my dad’s answer to the “why” thing was “Look it up.” 
I think that sometimes kids ask WHY as a game, sometimes they do it because they’re bored, and sometimes they genuinely want to know why. I know that my nephews did it partly as an annoying game, and partly because they didn’t want to look anything up. I think that I’d like to amend my answer to not just allowing the kid X number of WHY questions a day, I think that the kid should be required to look things up and then explain WHY to the adult. Of course, I was perfectly happy to browse in our home or school encyclopedias for hours on end, and I still enjoy it occasionally at the library. Google is my FRIEND these days.
I don’t get it. What’s wrong with that? It’s because red cups are dumb, isn’t it? Dammit!
Sorry, ever think of something you should have said the previous day?
Why?
Darn, I still get in trouble with this one. Isn’t this the reason SDMB is here? Google Exists? Permanent net connections are required?
I know you are nerved, but my daughter is just figuring out how to talk. She has been so inquisitive since birth, I know she is gonna nail me on this one. Thankfully, she has a mom that is a knowledge hound and a daddy that is a network administrator. She’s had her own computer since she was 3 months old.
Well, there’s a difference here between a kid who genuinely wants to know things and a kid who is doing it to annoy, because he knows it teases. I wish the OP would come back and clarify a bit, but it sounds like his kid is mostly being obnoxious and doesn’t actually want to know about things. I’m all for curiosity and explaining and looking things up, but I’m not sure this kid is looking for that. If he was really curious, he would not answer any and every question or statement with “why?” as the OP says.
A question for the OP: does he also do this in order to get out of obeying requests? Asking ‘why?’ in response to you asking him to take out the trash, etc.? My rule for kids who want to know why they are being asked to do anything is that I’m happy to tell them why–after they start doing it. This is mostly a safety issue, but also a tactic to avoid the dawdling disguised as ‘why.’ Read him the chapter of Little House in the Big Woods in which Laura obeys her mother promptly and thus avoids being eaten by a bear, to illustrate the principle.
There is a big difference between a kid asking why in response to an observation about te weather - say, as opposed to questioning a parent’s request/instruction/order. For the second category, I’d try a short explanation of safety/manners/respect/etc. Any further whys would be met with “Because I said so. I’m the parent, I get to say so. When you are a parent you can make up ridiculous rules to torture your kids, but for now, you follow mine.” Any subsequent why would be met with “Asked and answered. Strike the question.” It never went any further, but if it had, I could imagine the wooden spoon coming into play! 
As far as questions about all other things, what I would do first is ask the kid to rephrase their question to explain exactly what they want to know. I feel it forces them to think a little more, and actually participate meaningfully in any conversation, instead of lazily just asking why. Then I would try to explain as best I could. If I didn’t know, I would admit as much, and offer to help them look it up. I seem to recall we regularly ran into a brick wall of molecular physics…
Wow. Nobody’s mentioned the classic, “Why not?” response.
When my 9 yr old does this I give her a real answer the first time and then the rest are progressively more ridiculous until I get tired of it. By that time she’s usually giggling helplessly and I’m free to stop talking. If I’m not in the mood for all that I just say “Not today kid” and she goes about her business.
To stop this: get a set of encyclopedias.
When an answerable “why” appears, give the kid a “homework assignment” to look it up.
That’ll kill the [del]little bastard’s[/del] delightful child’s [del]curiosity[/del] annoying habits right off!
You called?
I agree that motivation is a huge deciding factor here. If they really want to know, we’ll speculate together then go find out the “real answer” online. If there is no real answer (religious questions especially), I’ll answer with a few possibilities based on a few different hypotheses, and then ask what he thinks. If it’s to annoy, I make a game of it and annoy right back.
Finally, never underestimate the power of “I don’t know.” It’s important, I think, that kids don’t think we have to know everything all the time. Parents are not gods. We have our own mistaken ideas, biases and blind spots. So do they. It’s important that they learn it’s okay not to know the answer, and that not knowing is the starting point to learning.
Try not to kill him, that’s my best advice.
I’m cracking up here! I just read that! It sounded like a terrific idea, depending on the age of the kid and his motives.
I don’t remember my sister or me going through a ‘why’ phase, but I suspect my parents would have given the “look it up” answer. I do know I learned to use a dictionary at a very early age.
You all missed the obvious answer. Lie. Kids ask lots of ‘why’ questions because they are lazy and don’t want to look things up on the computer. When my daughter started asking me lots of ‘why’ questions I would give a correct answer for the first question, a mostly correct answer for the second question, and a clearly incorrect answer for the third question. For example:
-
Why aren’t dolphins fish? They are mammals and breathe through lungs, not gills, just like you do. (correct)
-
Why do stars twinkle? They are millions of miles away and earth’s atmospherse causes them to twinkle. (mostly correct)
-
Why is that man fat? He ate a watermelon seed and now it’s grown into a full grown watermelon in his stomach. (bogus)
After a few weeks of this she stopped asking lots of why questions and instead learned to look things up herself…
The 7 year old is my grandson.......he does it to be obnoxious or in lighter terms.....to see how long it takes to "drive me nuts"....He is a caring boy with an upbeat personality but he loves to tease....When I say" Thats enough!!.....he lights up even more and continues with the "Why?" and laughs zestfully.