I was preparing lunch for the boys one morning and Tyler came to me and started begging to buy hot lunch at school. This is a morning ritual at our house. He begs, I tell him no. This particular morning, he proceeded to tell me about a boy in his class who always gets to be in the front of the line for lunch. He seemed to be a bit put off by this as though it was unfair. When I didn't react and validate his feelings, he went on to tell me that this boy was known to say gross things about how moms have babies.
Not wanting to pass up a teaching moment, I asked him to tell me what the boy was saying. He looked at me and said, "He says that babies come out where the mom's poop and pee." I asked Tyler how he thought babies came out of their mom's tummies and he looked at me with some apprehension and slowly pointed to his mouth.
I suppressed my desire to laugh and with a great determination to give him correct information, I decided to tell him how things really work. I told him that mom's bodies are designed in a special way to have babies. There is a place where babies grow and then there is a special place where babies come out. It is by where the mom's poop and pee but the place where the babies come out is only for babies, nothing else. I wanted him to realize that having a baby is not something "gross"; that they don't pass through the mother's bowels. When I finished talking, I was confident that I had inspired him and helped him to learn this in a very sacred way. He was looking at me the whole time, even nodding on cue. He looked like he was sick to his stomach, but he walked off to get ready for school.
The rest of the day, I was proud of myself for so eloquently teaching my six year old how babies are born. He was certainly going to go to school and tell that boy in his class how it really worked. Tyler was going to defend what his mother taught him and he was going to respect a woman's body for the special powers it has. I couldn't help but smile as I thought back on the conversation which would certainly shape his future opinion of mothers.
Later, Ryan told me that Tyler was talking with him and said that he knows how babies come out of the mom's tummy. Tyler said, "They come out where the mom poops and pees." Oh well, it's a start.
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Sounds like you did a great job explaining and I am sure Tyler will eventually catch on. When Jordan asked me that question, I told him they cut my tummy to get him out...which is true since I had a c-section. The part I left out is that not all babies are born that way, so he believes all babies are cut out of their mommies tummies. Someday I might have to tell Colin he wasn't cut out though, but until he asks, I don't plan on telling. ;-)
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