I've been mentally preparing myself to have "the talk" with A for several months now....ok, a year. Ever since we were driving down the road talking about winter turning to spring and what our favorite things about that are and A says "it's when the grass turns green, the flowers start coming out, and all the animals start breeding..." A is quite the little science geek and she sees things through that science-filter most of the time....
So, I've researched, talked to people, and read books. Talked to Dear Hubby to get our game plan... tried to psyche myself up, tried to figure out how much to share and how much can wait...I've prayed. Yes. I've prayed. Ok, God...don't let me sound like an idiot, ok? Don't let me scar her for life! And could you just send me a nice little sign when the time is right? That would be nice... My mom never attempted to give me "the talk" until I was 22 years old and engaged to be married. I have nothing to go by here, people. Don't make fun of my need to be overly prepared.
Then, a few weeks ago, AGAIN driving in the car to take W to taekwondo, A&W start talking about babies...and ask me to tell them again how A used to get the hiccups all the time when she was in my tummy and how W used to stick his booty out or kick me in the ribs. Good times, good times...they love hearing stories about themselves in-utero.
A's thought process got to rolling and she stops for a second and says "Mom - how DOES the baby get in there?"
Me: "Well, A...."
A interrupts: "I know God does it, Mom...I mean, HOW does he do it?" Dang...she shot me down before I even had a chance to use the God card.
Did I tell her? No...I didn't think it was appropriate in front of my 6 year old son (that's my story and I'm sticking to it)...so I used a stall tactic...she persisted for a few minutes but eventually got distracted and forgot.
Was that my moment? God, you forgot the sign to give me time to warm up! What if I pull a muscle or something? Besides, I wanted to cover some general girlie information about her reproductive system first! Lay the groundwork....you know. Dang... did I mess up?
This weekend, I got to lay some groundwork...it started out as a discussion about B.O. and deodorant...then we progressed to other changes as you get older - bras, mostly (she told me there were 3 girls in her class who wore bras - this is 3rd grade, people!) - and then a whole explanation of ovaries and fallopian tubes and uterus. We ended up talking about periods and even took a kotex pad apart to see how it works.
A never got weirded out or wide-eyed on me...she took it like a true little scientist. She asked good questions, she asked me when will it happen to her....But she never asked me what it takes for an egg to become a baby. And I didn't volunteer.
I'm holding out for summer....I don't want to deal with parents calling me because my daughter is the one who told the whole class about the birds & the bees.
Oh girl! I feel your pain! I told Levi the other day, and I was not at all prepared - I had read one book (Kevin Leman's) and his thing was the whole keep it casual thing, so I just did it - while we were in the kitchen, and he was actually loading the dishwasher, and he asked what a Ho was, and if it was a bad word - yeah, just the way I wanted to introduce sex! And I had to bite my cheeks to keep from laughing with nervous embarrassment over the whole thing! And he was totally grossed out - just like I was when my mom told me! And then he told Sam he knew what sex was, but he told him it was when you walked into the bathroom and saw someone naked! When I asked him why he told him that, he said it was because he just couldn't say those words out loud - it hurt him "down there" to even talk about it! I feel like we (Steve was there both times, but he was so sweet and let me do most of the talking!) did a less than stellar job, but at least I opened the door, and hopefully we can at least talk about it now - and when I told Sam, I was able to say it without laughing like a jr. high kid! This parenting stuff is hard work!
ReplyDeleteSo how did go? Have you had the talk yet?
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