"Where was I before I was born?" answers please for 3 yr old dd

[mrsbabookaloo]

Dd2 is 3.5 and whenever we talk about anything me and DH did in the past, or look at old photos, she asks where she was, and it's really hard to tell her that she just didn't exist. She's been asking about it a lot, and getting all outraged: "It's not fair. We were still your family. Where were we?"

In theory I guess she was kind of in my ovary, so I could say that; you were a tiny egg inside mummy. Am I right there: your eggs are there always, just waiting to be released? (bit shaky on biology).... But she wasn't always in DH because sperm are made fresh all the time (....very shaky grasp on this!)?

Just not existing seems so harsh and hard to comprehend. Does anybody have a clever answer?

Watching with interest as DS 3.9 keeps asking me this.

I told him he was a star in the sky. He wasn't convinced.

Maybe give her an example like - here is a cake. Where was the cake before we made it? It didn't exist, but the ingredients were in the cupboard. So before she was conceived she didn't exist, but Mummy and Daddy had the ingredients for her ready to be made.

ooh nice analogy samsmalaidh!

Women have all the eggs that they will ever have at birth, so yes I guess you could tell her that she was an egg because the egg that created her would have been inside you from birth.

My DD1 always used to ask "where was I? Was I in your tummy?" And I always just said that she wasn't anywhere, she didn't exist yet. I never thought about the egg thing!

My stepson announced to his older brother and sister that he was 'playing chess with God' before he was born! He was 4 at the time.

DD (6) has obviously picked up that babies grow from eggs. In the bath, she pointed to DS and said 'those aren't nuts, they are eggs and that's where babies come from' He looked horrified

Dd2 is now five but from about 3 she wanted to know where she was in photos etc and what did she do when the rest of us did something else. I always said she was in my tummy waiting to be made. A lot of the carers at nursery were pregnant around this time so she mostly got it.
Quite happy because she felt she'd 'been' there with us and didnt feel left out of the family.

OK, so I was right about the eggs, so I could say that. Thank you!

Agree about the eggs as a factual answer. But perhaps you could also ask her what she thinks?