This morning, I was sitting with Three-a, age 5.5, and she was working on some homework for kindergarten. She LOVES homework. But that's not what I'm going to discuss. While she was working on her homework she asked, "When you're kissing a boy does the boy part go into the girl part?" After a couple of seconds of me thinking fast and furiously, I stalled and asked, "What do you mean, exactly?" She reiterated, "When you're kissing a boy does the boy part go into the girl part..." and then added, "To make a baby."
Ai-yi-yi... she's 5.5.
Okay, I don't lie to the girls ... only lying by omission by making smoothies with Kale... Anyway, I took a deep breath and said, "Yes, the boy part goes into the girl to make a baby. You know about silkworms." She then clarified, "Yes, but for HUMANS, does the boy part go into the girl part for HUMANS to make a baby?" (She added the emphasis since I was being a little dumb.) I replied, "Yes, sweetie, the boy part goes into the girl for humans to make a baby. Did someone tell you about this?" She said, "No, I was just thinking about it and wondering." (Heaven help me, she's 5.5.) I said, "Oh, okay."
After coloring a bit more she said, "And then the boy goes "BLEH" in the girl, just like a mama bird feeding her baby." I said, "You mean like silkworms?" (They've seen stuff coming out of excited male silkworms.) She said, "Yea." I said, "Yea, something like that."
Oh my... I'm not sure if she thinks the "bleh" comes out of the Dad's mouth or where, but I didn't feel like asking, this morning. I was still drinking my tea; I needed more sustenance to deal with this. So, we may have a misconception going here, but we'll fix it at some point. Anyway, I am impressed with her inductive reasoning skills, to determine how human babies might be made from one data point of silkworms, but I wasn't expecting this from her. Not yet.
I am thrilled that they girls will ask me anything, but it still catches me off-guard when they do. It's all good, though. It keeps me on my toes!
2 comments:
I had a conversation about nosebleeds with two mum's of 8 year old boys at school and I said that it is a great time to talk about periods with girls. It turns out neither of their boys have any idea where babies come from. One has a 2 year old sister and thinks she came from the Baby Factory. I don't expect 8 year old boys to know about periods but I do expect them to know a little more than that.
That's actually totally impressive. and it's so much better to understand this before it's a big deal! It doesn't make them have sex faster, it just makes it less confusing. I think. I may not be the expert on that. But it seems logical. I mean, "bleh" doesn't sound that appealing.
Do silkworms have actual penises? I would never have guessed.
Post a Comment