We are very open with our kids, use the proper terminology for body parts, etc. but I think as geneticist/scientists, sometimes DH and I over explain things. DS#1 wanted to attend DD#1's birth, but I thought he was too young, but I know they will all want to be there this time. I think that we have discussed babies and how they grow inside the mother's uterus enough for them to get the concept, and I heard DS#1 explaining to the others about umbilical cords and placentas the other day (that was a hilarious little bit of eavesdropping - it was like they were attending a little ob seminar) and they all know that babies come out through the mother's vagina or they have to come out through a surgical opening. Well, it finally occurred to DS#1 that he had no idea how the baby actually got into the mother's body, so he asked me tonight (which is another indication that I think he has figured out that a new baby is coming eventhough we haven't told them yet). I told him I would think about the best way to answer him in a way that would be easy for him to understand and get back to him in the morning.
So now my problem, do I go into absolute clinical detail with the whole process (which is the answer I am sure he expects and wants) with pictures of how the zygotex meet and form an embryo, which then turns into a fetus, etc. and then all about the process of contractions and dilation and the issues it causes in the mother's body, or do I give him (and the others because they will want to listen) the simple answer to the effect of "when a mommy and daddy love each other, the daddy puts sperm inside the mommy and if one of the sperm meets up with an egg a baby gets to grow inside the mommy". I think I am second guessing myself, because some of my friends were shocked and actually aghast that I had explained masturbation to them and told them that it was natural and okay to do as long as it was done in private, and not to be ashamed of their bodies or the things that they did to their bodies that felt good when the time came. Now I think I may have been wrong to explain it to them at this age, and that maybe we have been too informative.
How did you explain it? Did it just generate more questions? Would you do it differently if you had it to do all over again?
So now my problem, do I go into absolute clinical detail with the whole process (which is the answer I am sure he expects and wants) with pictures of how the zygotex meet and form an embryo, which then turns into a fetus, etc. and then all about the process of contractions and dilation and the issues it causes in the mother's body, or do I give him (and the others because they will want to listen) the simple answer to the effect of "when a mommy and daddy love each other, the daddy puts sperm inside the mommy and if one of the sperm meets up with an egg a baby gets to grow inside the mommy". I think I am second guessing myself, because some of my friends were shocked and actually aghast that I had explained masturbation to them and told them that it was natural and okay to do as long as it was done in private, and not to be ashamed of their bodies or the things that they did to their bodies that felt good when the time came. Now I think I may have been wrong to explain it to them at this age, and that maybe we have been too informative.
How did you explain it? Did it just generate more questions? Would you do it differently if you had it to do all over again?
: I'm really hoping to avoid that conversation for a while though. (but don't want to avoid her questions, either)
I'm totally pro-sex (my parents were too, and I credit that with why I never had any STDs or accidental pregnancies despite having quite a lot of fun), but sex is consequential, you know? So I'd want to wait until they were old enough to really understand the potential consequences and be responsible enough to avoid them.
but they're seven and twelve...
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