Ask Jeeves

The other night at dinner Kyle and I were talking about the fact that there are two different plays called The Butler Did It running in our town right now.

Daniel asked, "What is a butler?"

We tried several different explanations, including the Tim Curry character Wadsworth's explanation from the movie Clue, which is "The butler keeps the kitchen and dining areas tidy."

"The butler takes care of things around the house, like answers the door and gets you things," Kyle offered.

"The butler is like a waiter in your house. If we had a butler, we'd just sit down to dinner, and he'd bring food to us, and then when we were done he'd clean up for us," I explained.

"So does that make sense, then? Basically, a butler takes care of cleaning up and answering the door and getting you things when you want them," we concluded.

Daniel lit up. "Oh, so like you then, Mommy!"

Yep. Just like me.