Please help me to understand 納得させて and ごまかす


> 幼稚園のころは適当にうまく話して納得させていたのだが、これくらいの年になると、適当に話してごまかすわけにも行かない。

This is from New Approach Japanese Intermediate Course.

Translation so far:

> During kindergarten he spoke suitably well...

So big problem is 納得させて. I just don't get what it means for this sentence.

これくらいの年になると... when it becomes this year?

And what does ごまかす have to with anything in this sentence?




>
> 「幼稚園{ようちえん}のころは適当{てきとう}にうまく話{はな}して納得{なっとく}させていたのだが、これくらいの年{とし}になると、適当に話してごまかすわけにも行{い}かない。」

I will be honest. If you really understand any important part of this
sentence, it does not show in your question.

This sentence is all about the difficulty of child raising caused by the sheer
fact that children grow up and get smarter rather quickly.

You state:

> "During kindergarten **he spoke** suitably well..."

Who is he? It is not the kid who spoke; It is the unmentioned subject "we/I"
who have/has been speaking to this kid. The subject of the verb 「話す」 would
likely be the parents, one of whom is the speaker.

「納得させていた」 is causative and it means "I/we used to make (the kid) understand".

「適当に」, which is used twice in the sentence, does **_not_** mean " **
_properly_** ". Here, it is used for its colloquial meaning of " ** _by
cutting corners_** ", " ** _rather irresponsibly_** ", etc. IMHO, it is a key
word for the comprehension of this sentence.

So, 「適当にうまく話して納得させていた」 would mean " ** _we cut corners to speak (to the kid)
and still managed to make him understand (things)_** ". Why was that possible?
Because the kid was only a kindergartener back then.

Moving onto the second half... (What am I doing at 3:00 a.m.? No wonder why
I'm still single...)

So, we now know that it was a piece of cake persuading the kid just about
anything in his/her kindergarten days. What about now?

「年」 in 「これくらいの年になると」 means " ** _age_** " and not " ** _year_** " as you said.
So, the phrase means " ** _when the kid gets as old as s/he is now_** ".

「ごまかす」 here means " ** _to cheat_** " or " ** _to lie about something_** ".

「ごまかすわけにも行かない」 means "there is no way you could lie about things (to persuade
the kid". I hope you are starting to get the whole picture here.

It used to be easy to ごまかす the kid because s/he was so little, but now when he
is a few years older and much smarter, it is very difficult to ごまかす him/her.
**Note that there is no criminal connotation whatsoever to this usage of
「ごまかす」**.

My TL:

> "When s/he was in kindergarten, we cut corners to speak to him/her and still
> managed to make him/her understand (things), but when s/he has grown to be
> his/her (current) age, there is just no way you could lie about things (to
> persuade the kid)."

