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Original poster

How was "making babies" explained to you, as a child?

123 replies

Clawdy · 15/04/2021 15:25

I was about ten, ( this was in the sixties ) and I came home from school filled with horror about what a schoolfriend had told me about how babies were made! Mum looked aghast, and tried to make it sound better.....She said men had to put their widgy in a lady's weewee ( weird names we used in our house! ). When I said "But that sounds horrible! " she said " Yes, I know, but if you love someone, you don't mind." Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
Clawdy · 15/04/2021 16:13

No one else?

OP posts:
stairway · 15/04/2021 16:16

My teacher took a key and put it into a lock and said that’s sex basically. My brother in the other hand described a bj and said that was sex. I was very confused for a while.

ragged · 15/04/2021 16:30

I was 5 & there were specific physical details and correct anatomical names. I remember thinking it sounded weird.

Condenast · 15/04/2021 16:36

Never explained
One convo about periods
Basic sex Ed in school age about 12

Notapheasantplucker · 15/04/2021 16:45

I thought they came out of your belly button until about age 9 when my best friend said her mum was having an operation to have her 'tuppy' tightened because she'd pushed 2 babies out of there! Obviously I was pretty mortified.

DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult · 15/04/2021 16:47

My mother used babyish names like minnie and cookie and said adults had a magic cuddle.

No wonder I was abused.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 15/04/2021 16:49

My mum bought a book when she was pregnant with my brother. I would have been 6 and it explained it all very accurately 🤣

Thatwentbadly · 15/04/2021 16:50

When my Gran died my Dad found letters his Mum had sent to his Dad who was away fighting WW2. Gran was married and pregnant and her own Mum wouldn’t explain how the baby was going to come out so Granda has to explain birth to her by letter.

frippit · 15/04/2021 16:52

At school age 11 we watched a video of a sperm and egg and 2 budgies mating, that was it. Certainly left a lot to the imagination.

Wallywobbles · 15/04/2021 16:53

Graphic detail at 5. It was definitely the right way to go about it fir me.

lanbro · 15/04/2021 16:54

I remember thinking a wank and fingering was sex but not equating sex to babies...my mum gave me a basic period chat and had sex ed at 12/13 that cleared some things up.

I've told my dds where babies come from, and explained periods, they are 7 & 9. They know a man gives a woman a seed to go with her egg to make a baby, and that it comes out of a penis when it's in the vagina...I also gave my 9 year old a growing up book, and I will always answer any questions honestly and without embarrassment. I've told my dds they can speak to me about anything anytime, and just hope 9 Yr old doesn't start periods at her dad's, although I have also prepared him and provided supplies!

littleredberries · 15/04/2021 16:55

I was given a vomit inducing. eye rolling book about how mummy and daddy cuddle in bed when they love each other very much 🤢
DD is going to get an anatomical explanation as early as she cares to know

palapenojopper · 15/04/2021 16:56

My parents left it all to school I think.
I remember I thought my mum had an illness that explained her period.

I'm making sure my kids are better educated.
My 4 yo son already knows about periods!

GoToSleepBabyPlease · 15/04/2021 16:58

Looked through my school biology textbook in the first year of secondary school.

I knew how babies came out before that though- covered in the period chat with my mother aged 10, with the help of the giant 'family health' book which was basically my family's NHS online before the days of Google.

VettiyaIruken · 15/04/2021 17:01

The schoolyard. Eventually.

Until I was older than I'm willing to admit, I thought they came out of your arse.

VettiyaIruken · 15/04/2021 17:03

My parents dodged all period talk too. I started at my grandparents and screamed the place down. I thought I was dying.

TheBullfinch · 15/04/2021 17:04

Nothing by my parents (including periods - I thought I was injured) but in the first year of high school, we watched a film about rabbits mating and were shown a diagram of human genitals fitting together during sex.

As it was a catholic school, no other information was given and the teacher looked mortified throughout.

I remember thinking, "no, that cant be right, surely!"

Totally inadequate.

When I was thirteen, I found a book in my parents' wardrobe which went into a lot more detail, then, I started dating and it slowly started to make sense.

I hope to god that sex education is better these days! Still, there's porn now so it's not such a shock.

RaininSummer · 15/04/2021 17:05

No in person explaining was done at all but mum left a family circle book in my room. Then aged 16 very awkwardly tried to discuss contraception before I went camping with boyf. Very relieved to hear I had already seen doc for the pill.

DinoHat · 15/04/2021 17:06

My Mum told me Dad swallowed an egg and then she swallowed an egg. It didn’t make any sense to me at the time....

Pleaseaddcaffine · 15/04/2021 17:09

Grew up on a farm. Didn't need explaining really.
My stepson asked me around 8 and I said the same way as all mammals create babies, like on nature programmes. He didn't ask any follow ups.

Wiggleinherwalk · 15/04/2021 17:09

My Mum bred and showed pedigree rabbits when I was growing up so we didn't have 'the talk' - there isn't much mystery or courtship with bunnies so you'd put the buck in with the doe, he'd know what to do, and then a few weeks later there would be tiny little hairless baby bunnies in a nest.
Although at primary school, when we were doing 'what noises do animals make' - everyone else was snuffling/twitching their noses for bunnies and I apparently piped up that "they grunt before they fall off..." as my teacher relayed to my mum at the end of the day... Blush

Trinpy · 15/04/2021 17:09

I got told the basic process of sex by my older brother when I was about 6 years old. Unfortunately I had absolutely no idea what a vagina was since I had never bothered looking down there myself and no one had ever explained it to me. I assumed that the man pushed his penis up against the woman's vulva and then maybe the clitoris went inside the penis - because why else would women have a clitoris?? It was an embarrassingly long time before I learnt the truth Blush.

maddiemookins16mum · 15/04/2021 17:46

It wasn’t. Bloody Catholic school.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 15/04/2021 18:11

A school friend told me when I was about 10.
I was relieved to find out at last, since when I was a few years younger I’d wondered how on earth - when a baby grew inside its mother - a young boy down the road was the absolute spit of his dad.

I’d asked my Dm but she’d fobbed me off - clearly far too embarrassing for her to talk about.

Heatherjayne1972 · 15/04/2021 18:28

Nothing. My mother told me about periods when I was 11 ish.

School sex Ed at 11/12.- but just the biological details this goes in here etc watched film of a lady giving birth but I strongly suspect it was heavily cut to show just the part where the baby is born

Although contraception was not discussed until we were 15/16 - too late for most of us
Safe sex wasn’t ever mentioned

I’m 48 and My dad has never discussed any aspect of sex and babies with me or my siblings