As my children cringed from the dining room table with a sickened look on their faces, I second guessed my choice of letting them watch one of my favorite childhood movies ; look who’s talking.
“Ohhh sick!!! Why are they cutting that cord! What’s happening to that baby!?” Landen frantically yelled as he covered his eyes with his little hands still covered in sour cream from eating his overly stuffed burrito.
“Well the cord is attached to the mother and that’s how the blood and food is supplied to the baby. That’s why we have a belly button”.
“I don’t want a belly button!!! That’s so gross” Vienna retorted. As usual, her responses come out in the sassiest of tones. “How did the baby get in her tummy in the first place!?” She asked with interest.
This is a time in a mother (or parents) life where they have to chose wether to be completely honest, or use their best deflection skills. Now I have prided myself on being the first. My children are the way they are because of the lessons I have taught them every day. So I chose to explain with the truth… Just the PG version.
“Well, when a man and a woman love each other they decide to mix their DNA together. This happens by the man giving his sperm to fertilize the egg that the woman has. The cells duplicate and grow and a baby is formed”. They both stared at me for a moment, no doubt processing what I had said.
“Oh okay! Like the DNA that we watched in the documentary right!?” Landen responded.
I was so proud to see that what I have taught them, or encouraged them to learn was something he remembered, and not only that, he understood.
“So mom.. You know those torpedo things we saw on the commercial?” (Referring to the tampax commercial that had played over and over again between our TV movie we had been watching) “those are used when a woman is ready to have a baby, but isn’t pregnant yet?” Vienna enquired.
I was in shock…. A little nervous might I add that my children are 7&8 and already know about baby making and periods. But at the same time, I felt comfort in the fact my children will not be blindsided by these things of nature. Their minds are open, and yearning to understand the world and all it’s details.
“Yes Vienna that is correct.” I responded.
“Oh…. Okay” she replied as she took another huge bite of her dinner as if our conversation was nothing out of the norm.
As I watched them take in the rest of the movie…yelling “ahhh bad word” every time Kirsty Alley dropped an “S” bomb…. I felt an overwhelming sense of control and pride. I can have an open and honest relationship with my children. A relationship that will allow them to tell me anything, to ask me anything, and to trust that my reaction or response will be one without judgement or lies.
I want them to know that life is what it is, it’s safe if you are aware of what’s going on and are not in blissful ignorance.
I can only imagine how the questions are going to develop over the next few years. And I hope, I am not pegged as the “mom who’s kids tell the other kids about periods and babies” at school. Haha
But I suppose, in the end, my children will thrive in having this knowledge and hopefully as they grow will seek out as much information and facts as they can on their own.
Alyssa's MOMoirs 