Where do Babies Come From, Mommy?

Where do Babies Come From, Mommy




Where do babies come from? To answer this tough question from inquisitive kids, I would first consider the age of the child asking. If your child is pre-school age, a truthful but short answer will be best. For example, “Mommy has a teeny tiny egg in her body and Daddy has teeny tiny sperm in his body and when they meet, they make a baby in Mommy’s body.”  Generally, a one sentence answer is all they need to satisfy their curiosity at that moment.  I love the book “Where do Babies Come From?” by DK Publishing and Angela Royston, it addresses this question beginning by looking at other animals then asks “Where do you come from?”  This book can be used with young children and can grow with them to be used by parents as a spring board to answer the where-babies-come-from-question with school-aged children. (One note, this book does talk about needing a mother and a father to make a baby, so if that is not your family’s situation, you may want to adapt or use another teaching tool.)

In answering “where do babies come from?” for older children, isn’t the part of the question that makes us big sister and baby, siblings and baby, should I have another baby, sleeping siblings, sleeping with baby, sister kissing baby,quake just the one little part about how does that sperm get to that egg?  You can be factual and truthful while also expressing your own family values.  It’s okay to tell them you want some time to think about the best way to answer the question, but be sure you get back to them within a day to give them their answers. Following through gives your kids confidence that you are a trustworthy source of information.

Start with anatomy, find an anatomy chart for a woman and one for a man that shows the reproductive organs internally and externally. You can ease into the discussion with proper names of body parts and what their main job is (sperm is produced in the testicles, eggs are stored in a woman’s ovaries, the uterus is where the baby will grow…) look up anything you have a question about before starting your discussion. This is even something you can initiate a conversation about without waiting for your upper elementary kids to come to you.

Tailor the discussion to the child’s age. This isn’t something that will be answered once and never again, as with so much in parenting, addressing the topic in small pieces multiple times over the years is a great way to educate your children as opposed to having one “big talk.”  As kids mature, repeat things you’ve talked about before and add more information, share your family’s viewpoints and ask if they have more questions for you.

As your children become teens, discussions about babies and pregnancy will be geared toward seeking healthy relationships, sexual health, and decision making, contraception and the continuing insertion of your family values. Our teens need our guidance, our positive feedback and our ability to field their questions in a safe environment. They need to know what their parents think, feel and believe about teen sex and they need to know (with regular, kind reminders) that their behaviors and choices matter.

I would love to hear how you’ve handled the question, “Where do babies come from?”  Have these discussions made you feel closer to your children?

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© Copyright Leah DeCesare 2012

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