I was changing Michael’s diaper the other day, and Flora happened to be looking on.
She’s a curious child.
Flora: Does his pee come out of that (pointing at his penis)? Or out of that (pointing at his testicles)?
Me: It comes out of his penis.
Flora: What’s that? (Indicating his testicles.)
Me: Those are his testicles.
Flora: Do they hold pee?
Me: No. (And that’s where this conversation should have ended. But noooo.) They hold sperm.
Flora: What’s sperm?
Me (silently to self: Shite!) (out loud): Sperm is what a daddy uses to help a mommy make a baby.
Flora then makes a serious of extremely awkward and hilarious hand gestures, pointing toward her body, indicating that she seems to know that a man’s special part goes into a woman’s special part for said baby making.
Me: Yes, Flora, the penis goes into the vagina. That’s how babies are made.
How do I get into these discussions?
I abhor those conversations and questions! One recently with my 11 year old son, “Mom, did you go through puberty early or late?” Randomly asked after he ran down the steps to get something to drink.
Although, I’m grateful, he’s asking ME. 🙂
cracked up at the hand gestures hahaha
Exactly: I would rather my children come to me with questions than trade rumors in the lunch room (which was pretty much my experience). And the gestures were priceless. I mean, I know we went over the basics of lady and boy business, but I could have done without the pointing. It was nearly impossible to keep a straight face.
Can I send my kids over when they start heading down this road?
You may, but as illustrated above, they may get more information than you bargained for. To my credit, I try to stay very matter-of-fact about it. Giggling (on my part) is minimal. and the morality of it all can wait until… oh, puberty I guess. 😉
For as often as Luca is naked around the house, no serious questions have been raised. We have, however, deemed his boy parts as doodles.
I am, of course, the serious nurse.
well, the sex and death questions really ramp up at age 5, in my experience. So you’ve got another year or so. And I often refer to M’s boy parts as “twig and berries”.
Now you’ve done it. Now you’re the Go-To Answer-Mom for all uncomfortable questions!
Bring it on.
I think it’s great that you had this conversation with her. I need to have this with my oldest…I should have been brave enough to answer when she asked years ago.
well, my guess is that I’m going to revisit this in more detail (plus the “moral” component) as they get older. That’s when it’ll get tricky. I think just discussing body part facts is *easy*. Good luck!
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