how do i explain?

Question

i am a mother to a 6 year old boy and he asked me where do babys come from? so i told him to ask his daddy and he did and his daddy told him to ask me. i will not tell him any thing like "a stork brought you" or something. i want to tell him but i do not know how. please help!

Answer 1

The trick to having this conversation is to do more listening than talking. You want to say enough but not too much. Either extreme is likely to make a child uncomfortable. If you always "clam up" as soon as the topic arises, your son is likely to fill in the blanks as best he can (which might mean that he has some very odd or even scary ideas). On the other hand, if you launch into an overly long, overly technical explanation, you may bore him or simply confuse him, in which case he probably will again make up an explanation that makes sense to him (but might not be anything like what you thought you were saying!).

So, when he asks again about babies, start by asking him, "Where do you think they come from?" and then really listen carefully to his answer. Don't be quick to correct him, at least not until you really know what it is he is thinking.

When it comes time to explain, I think simple, honest, and straightforward answers are best. Where do babies come from? They develop inside a special place in their mommy, called a uterus. How do they get in there (assuming this is one of his many questions)? They start out as tiny cells within the mommy, and the daddy has special tiny cells called sperm. Together they make a baby.

At each stage of understanding, your child will ask for the information that he's ready to receive and understand. As long as you go at his pace, I don't think you need to worry about frightening him. After all, reproduction is truly amazing and wonderful; no fairy tale or story comes close to matching the truth.

If your son has a burning interest in babies and how they come to be, ask the children's librarian at your local branch for a good child-friendly book (there are many). A favorite of mine is It's so Amazing!: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families by Robie Harris.

Good Luck to you. D & G Gifts Etc

Answer 2

Tell him on the lines of what I told my 4 (almost 5)year old nephew (my sister was too chicken to do it lol) that we you are a grown up and find some that we love very much. The mommy and the daddy decide that they want to have a baby. Then the baby grows in mommy's tummy and 9 months later the baby comes out.
He was there after my son was born so he knows what very young babies look like. Plus as a bonus he didn't ask about the stages between deciding to have the baby and the baby getting into Mommy's tummy. You might not have to explain that part until a while down the road.


P.S. They do have a dvd out about this subject but I cannot remember what it was called.

Answer 3

I have a 7 and 9 year old boys. My advice is that you be as open and direct as you can be in regards to the truth. There is no way that anyone here can tell you how to do it. You know the level of awareness and sensitivity of your child, we don't. I learned that a little information goes along way with the little guys. They arn't going to believe the stork, even worse they tell their kindergarden or 1st grade friends about the stork and learn some graphic details from their friendn(gotta love public schools). With my one son I did the old well Boys have a (insert favorite kid world for it) and Girls don't right? and it takes a boy and a girl to get pregnant........ Just take it slow and trickle informantion - Kids, even little kids are smarter then adults sometimes give them credit for

Answer 4

Be honest. At 6 he probably really doesn't WANT to know about putting the penis is the vagina, but rather just that babies are made by mommies and daddies and it is very private and special for them, and then the baby gorws in mommy's womb. He knows what other internal organs are (heart, stomach, etc) and at 6 he will be able to understand when you tell him that girls have an extra part of their "guts" that a baby grows in. If he wants to know how the baby gets out (that's all my brother wanted to know, how it got out, not in), tell him mommies have a special private opening just for babies to come out of. Just be honest and simple. Don't lie as one answer suggested and tell him that you don't know. Just stick to the bare facts without getting TOO intimate...this answer will probably suffice at his age. But if he probes further, you can tell him the mommies and daddies touch their private parts together. Nothing wrong with that. And at least he'll know the facts before he hits puberty and it's too late.

Answer 5

He is six years old, you explain it to him in terms he can understand. It depends on your child. However at 6 years old you should have already have explained what private parts are and that other people are not to touch them, nor make him touch theirs.

You can say that when mommy and daddy want to have a baby they have sex (or touch each others private parts, whatever you are comfortable with). Then the baby which is made up of part of daddy and part of mommy grows in a special part of mommy's belly called a womb. (Don't tell kids that the baby is in mommy's belly. Trust me I didn't talk to my aunt for months because I was convinced she ate a baby. I was only 2 or 3 though)

Answer 6

Well, kudos to you for not telling him nonsense like a lot of parents would! Go down to the children's section of the library and ask the librarian to help you find an appropriate book for his age. My daughter started asking at the age of 2! I gave her enough answers to satisfy her... (she proudly told people that she had "eggs in there" and they'd say, "You had eggs for breakfast?" LOL).

Just be matter-of-fact with him and don't act embarrassed and he won't think it's a big deal. This is just like explaining any other bodily function, like what your heart or lungs are for.

And I completely disagree with people who say, "They come from mommy's stomach..." What??? Use the correct terms. The kid will think the baby's in there with your digesting food! Say, "Women have a special place for babies to grow. It's called a uterus, or womb. Can you say that?" Make sure he knows the correct terms, for goodness' sake! And "The doctor cuts it out..."? Huh? Be straight with the kid! "There is a special place for the baby to come out, called the vagina. Some babies are too big or need to come out with a doctor's help a different way... the doctor can make an opening and bring the baby out that way. That's called having the baby by c-section." This is NOT too much info for a 6-year-old; this is called TEACHING your child correctly. If they asked how they breathed, would you say, "You have balloons in your chest..." Of course not! (Please ignore these people who are too squeamish to be straight with their kids... theirs will be the ones who are later posting yahoo questions like, "If it was our first time having sex, can I still be pregnant?")
Good luck!

Answer 7

He probably doesn't need all the, ahem, intimate details yet. Just use general terms, like Mommies and Daddies make them and Mommies grow them in their tummies. Don't get into how exactly unless he presses.

If you have a biology book that shows pictures of a growing fetus, that may satisfy him... and if not, there's websites that have illustrations of the progression, like www.babycenter.com .

Answer 8

Tell him the truth. He will not understand it all but he will ask again later and will understand more. Don't sell kids short. They can handle a lot at that age. I do think you and your husband should be toghether and agree on everything that you tel him.

I bet he already has figured out that you two are afraid to tell him or you do not know. Kids are not stup[id.

Answer 9

you can always start that if 2 people love eachother a lot, are able to have babies... but i suppose that wont keep him happy as an answer, my son is 4 and that kept him happy, and that the baby came out of mommy's tummy. good luck:)

Answer 10

My son asked me the same thing when he was six and I said babies come from mother's stomach then he asked how they get out of there then I said doctor opens the stomach to get him out and he wanted to the the scar (I don't have one)...