What I Say When My Kid Says, “Can’t You Just Google It or Ask ChatGPT?”

What I Say When My Kid Says, “Can’t You Just Google It or Ask ChatGPT?”

I take a breath. Because this is not really a question about information. It’s a question about authority.

Who does the child learn to trust as the source of truth? When a child immediately reaches for Google or Chat GPT, the authority shifts outward, to an algorithm, to the internet, to a faceless collective. When we pause and say, “What do you think?” or “Let’s figure it out,” we’re strengthening something different:

• Their own thinking

• Their capacity to reason

• The authority of lived adults in their life

• The authority of direct experience

This is about where the child places trust. Young children especially are meant to experience knowledge as something that lives in a relationship: in parents, teachers, books you hold, and nature you observe. Not in a glowing rectangle that answers instantly and impersonally.

Authority doesn’t mean control. It means: Who holds wisdom? If every question defaults to Google, the subtle message becomes:

“The internet knows better than you.”

“Truth lives outside of us.”

“Don’t wrestle with a question just outsource it.”

The reason we don’t want children outsourcing knowledge too early is because they first need to develop their own critical thinking skills. Before relying on technology for answers, they need to understand how to question, research, compare sources, and form conclusions independently. Just like learning to walk before you run, children need to build the foundational thinking skills first, so that later, when they use technology, they’re directing it wisely rather than being directed by it.

But when we slow it down, we’re teaching:

“You are capable of thinking.”

“We can investigate together.”

“Knowledge unfolds.”

It’s less about rejecting technology and more about protecting the development of inner authority, that quiet confidence that says, “I can think. I can discern. I can explore.”

When my child asks to Google or Chat GPT something, here’s what I do instead:

I say, “What do YOU think?”

I ask, “How could we find out?”

We look in a real book.

We step outside and observe.

We call Grandpa.

We sit in the mystery for a while.

Childhood isn’t meant to be instantly searchable.

When every question is answered in 0.3 seconds, something else disappears:

-Wonder

-Imagination

-Patience

-Inner authority

I don’t want my child’s first reflex to be a screen.

I want it to be curiosity.

-Conversation.

-Experimentation.

-Relationship.

Google has its place. But in our home, childhood comes first. And sometimes the most powerful words I can say are:

“Let’s think about it together.”