sex ed for the six year old set

[flea]

Last night in bed Casper asked me, "Eliza says that when a man and a woman make a baby the man puts his penis in her crotch. Is that true?" I said yes, and said the penis actually went in the vagina. She asked if that was how mr. flea and I made her. I said yes. It transpired that she thought the penis had to remain in the vagina for the entire pregnancy, which would be somewhat inconvenient, and I disabused her of this notion by explaining the sperm the the egg (although I described the egg as a special kind of cell, I think she is still placing it in the general category of eggs-from-which-birds-and-dinosaurs-hatch, stupid English language.) We also cleared up that the vagina is not the same as the anus, and I am surprised that she should mix this up, since we've talked about genitals pretty consistently since she was 1 year old.

She was much more interested in the baby being born, which we discussed at length (she asked if it hurt, and I used my marathon analogy), and segued into a discussion of how cute she was when she was born. We also talked about what colors babies are when they are born, so I introduced the concepts of vernix and amniotic fluid. We'll see what she retains!

ION mr. flea is making arrangements for ANOTHER new pediatric dentist (who actually takes our insurance). Their web site makes me shudder, with the twee, but I suppose most patients want that in a pediatric dentist. My brain is actually in panic hand-flapping mode even though HE'S doing everything. ARGH. I hate that this is so hard for me. There's the practical hard PLUS the me personal insane-o hard.

Comments

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Sex is one of those areas where Chuckles' fascination with biology runs into her indifference to humans and their relationships. So from nature shows and books she's picked up the basic concept that for vertebrates, a male and female need to mate before the female produces offspring, and somehow there's some combining of genes in there. But what "mating" actually entails, she does not know and does not care... which makes it unintentionally kind of creepy when she's pretending that she and Squeaky are dragons and she announces "Okay, now we have to mate, so I can go lay my eggs!" So far I've just left it at "Mating with your brother is not a good idea." *g*

It's probably time to buy a book that spells things out.

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

I love the way you are handling the sex ed thing. LOL at Casper; she is so cute.

I would like to have a 2nd child but my spouse is hesitant, and Charlie (just 5) has unexpectedly, and without my prompting, gone on his own campaign for a baby to be added to the family. Naturally, being 5, he has no idea what the arrival of a new baby would entail. However, based on a few rudimentary conversations we have had with him about sexual reproduction, he has started saying, "Daddy! Please put the seed in Mummy! Please!" Which cracks me up more than it should do.

As for the dentistry, I feel your pain. Charlie's teeth are a mess and the NHS dentist has given us the option of waiting and doing nothing for the moment, or putting him under general anesthesia and extracting half a dozen teeth (which he makes sound ghastly, and which I can't help feeling is ghastly). I'm not sure what we will do about it. Kudos to Mr Flea for locating a pediatric dentist.