telling children how baby gets out of tummy

[ghostspirit]

Just a general post really. i have always been honest to my children about how the baby comes out. when my 5 year old asked i told her some mummys have their tummys cut open and the baby is taken out. and for some mummys the baby comes out of the mums private parts.

someone i know feels their kids dont need to know that and told their children the baby comes out of the belly button. then my daughter told them it does not and told them it comes out of the private parts.

so im wondering if familys tell their children different things and then children like my daughter say no thats not true its like this...how do you deal with it? without causing any offence to the other parents.

Highway our DC would get on.

DD (4yo): Is there a baby in your uterus?
Woman: Pardon me
DD: Your uterus, UTERUS...
Women: Umm, yes. She certainly likes long words...

When I was heavily pregnant, I got up for a wee at some ungodly hour and DS, then about six, poked his head round the door and said 'How will the baby get out of your tummy?'. My considered and not-at-all sleep deprived reply was 'it'll come out of my vagina'. 'Alright' said DS, disappearing again, only to return a moment later to add 'That is really weird though'.

My DS aged 4 knows they cut mummy open and then in his version "he hopped out", my DD aged 3 pushed her way out - where she pushed from has been left ambiguous but if she requires specifics.

DS asked how daddy managed to fertilise the seed in mummy's tummy the other day and I told him that the process was called conception and kept it vague, he seemed satisfied.

There is much talk about how he has a penis but his sister is different to him, I heard him telling her the other day that when she is bigger she will grow breasts and fluffy bits and struggled not to giggle.

DS, 3.4, saw a book about babies and realised pretty quickly that the baby is a) head down (lots of 'the baby is upside down mummy!') and b) coming out down there! He has now taken to pointing to my fanjo in public and saying 'baby in mummy's tummy is coming out there'. Not embarrassing at all.

Do tell your children how babies arrive though - even if they embarrass you in public with the knowledge.

My grandmother had NO IDEA how babies got out until she was in labour and she had to ask her MIL. She was horrified and terrified when she found out how it was going to get out.

I told my ds the truth as and when he asked. He's almost 8 now and knows pretty much the whole process from conception to birth. Not worth making things up. It's just a natural process.

I told mine when they were young preschoolers that the baby came out from a place in between the woman's legs and you had to push very hard to get it to come out. Nothing but factual, me.

GoooRooo I can't understand why your grandmother didn't ask before then.

I'm reading this thread whilst sitting in a GP waiting room and OMG, some of these gorgeous questions and conversations your children are coming out with are adorable!! It's putting a huge smile on my face

I told my two year old that her sister would be pushed down from my tummy and come out between my legs. She climbed on top of me and started pushing on my bump to "help".

Gruntfuttock This was the 1940s. She was very uptight her whole life - would turn the telly over if there was any sign someone might kiss! She just wouldn't have been comfortable asking.

She had two daughters (my mum and aunt), neither of whom knew what periods were until they got them and had to ask friends what to do as she had never mentioned it - except to say they mustn't have a bath when they had their period. As a result my mum was much, much more open with me and insisted I knew everything.

My DH's great grandmother didn't know what sex was until her wedding night. She went to an all girls boarding school and was very sheltered by strict, Victorian parents. She made sure when DH and I got engaged (we'd been together 6 years at that point!), that I knew what sex was because it fucking terrified her and apart from conceiving her babies, she tried to avoid it and eventually asked for a separate bedroom from her husband.

I was pregnant with DS when DD was 3/4 and she asked every question going. She knew about placentas and umbilical cords and CS and forceps and so on. DS is 3.10 now and knows how a baby gets out and that they're made from a sperm and an egg but has never asked about how the two meet. I'll just tell him when he asks.

You can't do anything about other people telling fairy stories and nonsense to their children. With the topic of reproduction, confirm they are right as it's confusing to be told otherwise by other children and maybe just say it's something we are told about by parents and then school when we're older so it's best not to talk about it with peers and younger children. DD has had some sex ed at school and they always tell them that they shouldn't discuss it with younger children because it's not their place to do so. DD knows she can ask me and DH anything at all and we will answer honestly but other children might not know as much as she does and to not discuss it with them in case their parents aren't ready for them to know. It's a ruddy minefield because you don't want it to be some big, secretive thing. It's just basic biology but you do want to avoid treading on toes.

Hard to believe these days, but my gran went into labour at the age of twenty-five, not knowing how her baby would come out. She had never known her mother, and had no real family. She told me she had to ask the midwife "Please could you tell me how the baby's going to come out?" The midwife replied "Same way it went in, luv."
Gran said she spent the rest of the labour thinking "But that's just...not...possible!"

I let dd age 2&1/2 watch animals give birth infront of her, all very nice and cute, plus wildlife documentaries and hospital documentary edits. So never had to actually answer a sudden question.
From preschool age many games involving playing mummies involved her and her bf lying on top of dolls and shouting I'm having a baby while making weird noises before triumphantly whipping their baby out, shouting 'its a girl congratulations' and then sticking it up their tops.

Whilst we're on this subject. I have told my 5yr old how they come out vaguna/section BUT she has asked how the baby gets in there. I changed subject quickly but would love to hear how you've explained this. (She has an 8yr old brother who has never bothered to ask but obviously would be v. interested to find out! ????)

I haven't yet had the sex question (slightly dif I know) but in preparation I have bought a copy of the little book 'Mommy Laid an Egg' by Babbette Cole. Its funny illustrations explain really weel about sex and getting pregnant. Can't remember if it describes the birth - will have to go and have a look now !

My dds (nearly 8 and nearly 6) know how a baby gets out. I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant so they're very interested in it all. I find it very difficult to try and fib to them so they do know roughly how it all works. I haven't braved the sex talk yet or how daddy's sperm gets to mummy's egg to make it 'hatch'. DH and had a vasectomy reversal last year so they know about that and that it takes a man and a woman to make a baby... thankfully they haven't asked more about that yet :/ The eldest absolutely loves OBEM and similar :)

Its not the telling them I mind, its when the questions seem to come. Dd3 has long known you need a seed from daddy and egg from mummy to make a baby but chose to ask how the seed got into mummy in a very quiet cafe whose only other occupants were assorted elderly ladies.

I also had to explain condoms to my 6 & 8 year old when they wanted to buy some in a souvenir shop! It greatly amused the passing German teenagers.

I told my 5 yr old DS that Daddy put a seed into mummy's tummy with his willy. DS thought this was ridiculous and doesn't believe me. Job done.

nigella I told dd all girls have tiny eggs in them and when they are old enough to be a mummy every baby grows from one of the eggs. Was only about 2 so that was it. About 4 she asked what made the egg start growing and I told her the man gave her a seed and so on.
My favourite babies comment was when dds classmate kindly informed the crowd in the playground admiring her new baby brother that her mummy had loads and loads and loads of room for growing babies in her tummy because it's really really really big. For some reason her mum didn't take up her suggestion she pull up her top and show everyone all the space she had.

DD1 was 2.4 when DD2 was born.

She asked how she got out, I replied I pushed her out and was waiting for her to ask where she came out but she never did, and 16 months later still hasn't.

Her knowledge of reproduction is that there were pieces or her in daddy and pieces in mummy that got put together and then she grew in mummy's tummy. She asked if she came with instructions

*of, not or

DS (5) asked when he was about 3. I just told him the truth: "you came out through my vagina".

I told the DCs that when you are an adult and a man and a woman love each other (relevant because it was specifically how you make a baby) and decide they want a baby, the man's willy goes inside the woman's minnie, releases a seed that meets the woman's egg and it grows into a baby.

They were happy with that. It's the most detailed of anyone I know apparently but it's factual and not overtly so I think.

"Minnie" is factual?

Daddy can have a willy but mommy has to have a Minnie because the 'v' word is just too vulgar....