You begin your years as a parent with the understanding that you know everything (relatively speaking) and your child knows nothing.

That can be a bit scary, since there is nothing like the birth of a baby to convince you how little you really do know; but it is also a sensible arrangement with which you eventually become comfortable, since the average infant or toddler isn’t going to challenge your knowledge of finance, carpentry, automotive skills or current events for a number of years.

You grow so used to being the final authority and the ultimate repository of knowledge in your child’s life that the first genuine challenge to your status as High Holy Smart Person can be a bit shocking.

For most of us, it happens first while listening to the radio.

“Who’s making that awful noise?” you might find yourself musing aloud while driving your child to school and listening to the rock station she likes.

“Oh, that’s Korn.”

A little while later: “I kind of like this one. Who does it?”

“Sixpence None the Richer.”

“What?”

Then, it’s actors – or, more accurately, young, good-looking guys who are in movies and TV shows. She knew who Leo DiCaprio was before you knew he existed; she knew he was out before you knew he was in.

It takes a little adjusting on your part, but you realize that kids have always been way ahead of their parents on pop culture – your own mom and Bob Dylan, for instance. So you learn to accept that there are a few inconsequential tidbits of information out there your kid might have picked up before you got around to them. After all, you can’t know everything.

But then she hits you with East Timor.

“I’m really concerned about the situation in East Timor,” she says.

And you have to admit in your heart of hearts that you didn’t know East Timor from West Timor, you really couldn’t have stated with any certainty which hemisphere it was in, and you had no idea that there was any reason to be concerned about it.

Yet in a week’s time, it seems almost everyone is talking about East Timor, and she was absolutely right to be concerned about it. The embassy is burning, diplomats are fleeing and the people we trusted to guard the compound are now looting it. It’s a scenario that your daughter will see many times as she gets older, but right now it’s very new and alarming to her. You comfort yourself in thinking that’s why she saw it coming and you didn’t.

Then you start to wonder if you ought to start restricting her access to the newspaper.

The real answer, of course, is to read more of the newspaper yourself, rather than skip over the international hot spots to get to the local scandals and the baseball standings. Or else become used to the idea that another person in your house is absorbing as much – if not more – information as you and your spouse, and can now challenge and inform you on subjects from the new fall TV season to the Far East (I believe that’s where East Timor is) to feng shui.

Feng shui, for those of you who might not be familiar with the term, has to do with the concept of arranging your personal environment so that the energy flow is positive. I learned this the other day from my 14-year-old, who couldn’t believe I’d never heard of it before.

But I’ll bet she doesn’t know who’s leading the National League Central. (KRT)

(Rick Shefchik writes for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul MN 55101. )