The Daily Life of Sweetpea[s]

One thing I've experienced as a parent is that I am never as prepared for things as I think I ought to be. I imagine that thing will come up at the appropriate times and I will have the perfect responses. But most of the time your 6-yr old waits until you are madly driving him to school and yells from the backseat, "how do babies get inside of you??" In those moments you do the best you can and you use whatever is at hand to help.

A long time ago we explained to Sam that Mommy had 'seeds' in her body and that Daddy helped make them grow. For a 4-yr old it is all he needed to hear. But recently Sam was asking more questions about the whole baby thing and I asked him how he thought the baby got inside of me. He said, "You swallow a seed and Daddy waters it." (He was way off and so close in so many ways.) I looked at Andrew and asked him to please have a talk with Sam. I couldn't have Sam thinking women swallow seeds to have babies!

20 minutes later they emerged from the bedroom having had 'the talk' or nearly so ,as is appropriate for a 6-yr old. When Andrew realized he needed to illustrate some things he grabbed what was closest, a Far Side book. There in the front cover forever immortalized are the drawings of how a baby develops and is born.

Sam didn't say much afterwards he appeared to be quite satisfied with what he had been told. He did tell Ethan the next day that he had come from an egg. Ethan didn't seem impressed.