Teaching The Birds and The Bees To Little Children

"Mommy. Where do babies come from?"

Do you have your answer ready? Here are your choices:

A) A stork drops them off at the door step.
B) They grow in a cabbage patch.
C) They come from a fertilized egg, only its not like the eggs we get at the grocery store. This is a very special tiny egg that mommy's have inside them. It is fertilized by tiny sperm which daddy's have. That is why every baby is made up of part mommy and part daddy! The fertilized egg grows in a special place in mommy called a uterus. Its takes 9 months for the fertilized egg to grow and grow and grow until its a baby that is ready to be born!

I hope your answer is c). Doesn't that sound as exciting as dinosaurs and volcanos? Well, its about the same for children so don't get all caught up in your own adult taboos. Just give them the info and try to look like you are not crapping your pants at the same time.

PS - This will be the first of MANY talks. Next they'll want to know how that sperm got there. Are you ready for that?

Comments

[Amy]

There's a wonderful book called "Where Do Babies Come From" by Margaret Sheffield which addresses this in a beautiful and sensitive way. It's very thorough, and serious without being grim. The illustrations are both beautiful and accurate, not cartoony or diagrammatic. It's out of print now but worth getting from the library or second-hand.

[Alyson Schafer]

Thanks Amy! I'll check it out. Anyone else have a favorite? Some one just asked me about how to disclose to their child that they were conceived by invetro fertilization (IVF) from a sperm donor, after hearing another child declare "my daddy was a needle". Got any book recco's for that?

[Julie]

Hi Alyson,
I think I got this one right !
At first, my family was all in shock but now they've warmed up to the idea that the kids understand the basics. After all - it is just Biology.

I may have gone a little too far with the explanation but it's kind of cute hearing my 4 year old, after the explanation of the egg and seed, say: "... and when I was ready to come out I comed out mommy's vag#$%"

Oh well !