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Explaining reproduction to 6yo

1 reply

captncrunch · 09/05/2022 06:51

Hi all
I have a 6yo (year 2 so turning 7 soon) who has started asking a lot of questions about having babies.

We have already had chats in the past about babies growing in the womb, she knows about periods (to an age appropriate extent) but recently she has been a bit preoccupied with HOW women choose to have a baby, and what if they don't. I think she is concerned it can just happen without warning!

They have also been learning about different types of families in school. She has asked a lot of questions about marrying a woman and I have said to her that we just want her to be happy and won't mind whether she marries a man, a woman, or doesn't get married at all! However, someone at school has told her if two women get married they can't have a baby and this has upset her. Of course I have told her that two women can still have a baby and that there are lots of different ways to have babies but she is pressing me on whether it is different, and whether we need dads. A few weeks ago she even said that dads aren't really part of the family in the same way as mums because we come from mums not dad's.

I've been skirting around this, while answering as factually as possible for months now but she keeps coming back to it and is generally very inquisitive. I definitely get the impression she knows there is missing information and that she needs more.

In lots of ways she is really innocent and also very sensitive so I don't want to regret telling her something that she finds too much!

Thought I had a couple of years before navigating this one. Does anyone have any advice or can anyone recommend a book that might help explain how mum and dad make a baby but without too much detail for a 6yo?!

Thanks!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
MolliciousIntent · 09/05/2022 07:35

Surely you just tell her that to make a baby you need sperm from a man and egg from a woman, then the baby grows in the woman's tummy. If two women want a baby, they get a man to give them some sperm and use that.

I think by skirting this question you've made her think that this is something she isn't allowed to know, which is probably making her anxious about the whole thing and prompting the escalating questions.

Side note - she sounds very bright and engaged!

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