why do some parents tell their children that the stork delivers babies?

Question

I know its to avoid explaing sex to them, but why specifically a stork?

Emma C, you don't use the term 'stork'? why, and what term do you use?

Answer 1

because according to what has been told about the old story, Storks were orrignally the takers of babies, but parents thought that they must come up with a different idea for this bird, so they said that it brought them, rather than took them away.

Storks are also used in cartoons (especially Hannah-Barberer Cartoons) as messengers, so this may also explain why they say the Stork brings them.

Answer 2

In Greek mythology, Gerana was an Æthiope, the enemy of Hera, who changed her into a stork, a punishment Hera also inflicted on Antigone, daughter of Laomedon of Troy (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.93). Stork-Gerana tried to abduct her child, Mopsus. This accounted, for the Greeks, for the mythic theme of the war between the pygmies and the storks. In popular Western culture, there is a common image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in cloths held in its beak; the stork, rather than absconding with the child Mopsus, is pictured as delivering the infant, an image of childbirth.

Answer 3

The stork has been a sign of delivering a baby for a long time... I think its because they carry things around in their mouths. My son and my nephew both have birth marks that are called stork bites - it is a red mark on the back of the neck right by the hairline... referring to the stork carrying them by the back of their necks...

Answer 4

i had the whole 'stork takes baby to the cabbage patch (which once i questioned how did mum n dad get us when we dnt hav a cabbage patch, suddenly appeared!) n plonks it there to be found n then sits on the roof to tell the world there's a baby in the house' story...i think it was just to kinda make the idea of a baby really cute n beautiful n nothing like it really is!

Answer 5

It's an easier way for now to explain to them- that's how they came. I have seen on the cartoon channel. That a stork brings bugs funny, and then the actual child of the momma monkey.

My Sister has three kids- her oldest is 5- He's always asking that question- She just says, you came out of my belly. And he just stops.

Every parent has their unique way to tell their children-. It's very interesting to know what they tell them.

Answer 6

My mother always told me and my brother that babies come from heaven. And that when it was time for you to get a baby, a little angel would come and tell you to go to the hospital to pick up your baby.

I am a mother now and I have told my daughters that babies come from heaven, my oldest has always said the Jesus puts the baby in mommys belly, so the devil can't hurt it. **Not sure where she got that from**

We never went with the stork idea for human babies, but that is where my oldest always thought baby animals came from, I guess watching Dumbo gave her that idea.

Answer 7

I never use the term stork on my kids!

Answer 8

Lately there have been three friends of mine who have had babies, so this made my 5 yr old start asking lots of questions. So, this is what I told her. Every woman has a seed in her, but she needs a boy who loves her very much in order for the seed to grow into a baby. This seemed to satisfy her question without going into too much detail. I'm sure those questions will come in a few years.

Answer 9

I was found under a gooseberry bush,did the stork drop me?

Answer 10

Storks! What?? What about cabbage patches?