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

[Clawdy]

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."

our daughter asked & we told straight. what's the point of giving things weird names? thinking she was about 9/10. I learnt the same way,i asked,got told,finished,giving things silly names just makes me creep

I remember looking under Grandads gooseberry bushes and got scratched to bits.
I can't remember when I learned the shocking truth.

I knew nothing about sex at all until the final year at primary school when some girls at school told me. I was horrified, utterly disgusted and went home to ask my mother. She wasn't prepared and went all awkward and peculiar, but did confirm it was true.

Honestly, the world collapsed for me at that point! It was awful, I couldn't bear it, I was crying and sobbing. We were a strict family and 'private parts' were considered dirty and rude, the idea that they were involved in some act that created babies was terrible to me at the time. It actually took years for me to get over it, in my teens I became anorexic for a while as I was so mixed up (being so slim stopped my periods).....

When I finally married and had my own children, I was determined they wouldn't go through the same problem, I was open with them from the beginning, had casual age-appropriate conversations and introduced children's books while they were very young so that it wouldn't come as a shock.

I always knew how babies were made because alongside books on canals, hedgehogs, birds, and other fascinating subjects, I had this incredibly 1970s book which I still own. Did the same for my DC, it’s much easier if they have always known, then you don’t have to have a big conversation about it.

I clearly remember my parents sitting me down for a "serious" talk. I was aged 9/10. I don't remember what the said but I remember it was so awful... I don't think they did a good job tbh. With my kids, when our guinea pigs had mysterious babies (twice🥴) we explained the whole "science" thing then. I think it worked well.

After overhearing me and my friend discussing whether babies came out from your bellybutton or lower down my grandmother (who I lived with) gave me a cryptic scientific explanation about two cells connecting.

Unfortunately the word ‘cell’ is synonymous with mobile phone in my mother tongue. When my grandma got a mobile years later I was afraid to speak through it in case I had a baby

Also went to Catholic school so no further explanation was given and I mostly worked it out from what friends said. All in all a mortifying experience throughout.

My mum told me that the man puts his willy into the ladys fanny and squirts his seed into an egg that grows into a baby.
I was 7. Believe it or not, it's one of the better things she's ever said!
I told my little one about periods and she said it sounded dreadful! She's not wrong really!

@Trinpy

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 .

You knew what a clitoris was but not a vagina?

No real explanation from my mum. The usual sex ed lessons in school and then this random book by Dr Miriam Stoppard appeared . It had diagrams and would often be found under by brothers bed 😂.

About 11, it was definitely in year 7.

I knew how men and women had sex with each other from about 7/8 years old, but I didn’t know for a long time thats how a baby is made. The only discussions about sex at home were to tell us that it was strictly forbidden unless you were married.

My son is five and knows how babies are made, the earlier you know the less awkward it is.

My mum gave me a book. I couldn't be bothered reading it but said I had. It also explained periods (apparently) so that was also a surprise 😂

I don’t remember my mum ever explaining it tbh.

Still waiting (aged 60)!

We did have lots of animals though as I grew up on a smallholding so I don't think I ever did not know really.

My friends and I wanted to know where babies came from. Our teacher told us to ask our mums. This was aged 8. My mum told me. It was all very matter of fact. Like sex ed. Good job done. I remember being a bit surprised... but then I remember being surprised a lot about many things at the same time (fleas, electric fences, men smoking pipes, bubbles, dreams, birds nets, Ethopians...). Then I told two friends at school... and their mums came to our house and screamed at my mum. That's the confusing bit for me. There was a real showdown!!!

I heard from friends with older sisters when I was probably aged about 8. I remember being horrified but my friend reassured me that we didn't HAVE to have sex, apparently there was a pill you could take which would also make you pregnant if you wanted how wrong could we be?

I was also under the impression that sperms were quite big, like tadpole sized and I remember being very concerned that they could escape

My mum never explained it, but I did have an encyclopaedia that had a page about reproduction that I looked at often I read Shout magazine and put together the rest myself.

My DM told me when I was about 10, but she didn't go into details of how the sperm meets the egg. I think I got the picture anyway. At the same time she explained that some men love other men, and some women love other women, I think that was brilliant in the mid-60s.

A book called 'Peter and Caroline' was left lying around casually for me to pick up.

Followed up eventually by an excrutiating evening talk at school which had been previewed and horrifyingly embellished by a year older friend. Thankfully the rumours of a boy and girl being chosen to parade naked proved untrue.

When you got married God would give you a baby if you were lucky and prayed for one. Always wondered if those without children had said the wrong prayers. Catholic school. Too scared to ask teachers though. Was the 1970s though.

Extremely clinically - my father was an obstetrician & gynaecologist.

Claire Rayner's The Body Book, complete with illustration of 'a very loving cuddle.' I bloody loved that book. I was the youngest in my family, so my siblings gleefully told me everything else I should not have been told. I remember my cousin & I looking up 'anal' in the dictionary and how our faces dropped when we realised it meant bum.

'People... actually.... how do they have penises in their bums? Is that what it means?'

My friend told me in the playground when we were 8 or 9. I was horrified, but also relieved to learn that pregnancy isn't something that happens randomly 😂

I remember being about 3 and being told "Mummy, Daddy and God made you" and I imagined the three of them standing around a table and assembling me from various body parts :o I have a sister three years younger so perhaps it was too du with that?

I don't remember any actual explanation until sex Ed in year 6.

I knew pretty young that the dads Willy went into the mums vagina but I’d never heard of an erection and so to me willies pointed downwards, my imagination was utterly baffled as to how it went in.