The Birds, But Not the Bees... Yet

It seems like it's when I'm on long drives with my daughter that she asks the tough questions.  I try to give kind of low-key, but also honest and factual, but also age-appropriate answers, because I'm hoping to instill trust.  I'm hoping that she'll always feel like she can come to me with her questions.  The problem is that she does.  And some of them are tough ones.

So tonight, the conversation started with her asking me how old a girl has to be to have a baby.  She guessed 18.  Earlier this summer we'd had our first rudimentary conversation about menstruation.  So I was able to reference that conversation, and to remind her that when that starts, that's how you know your body is ready to be able to make a baby.  But then, in a rudimentary, age-appropriate way of suggesting she not get knocked up as a teenager, I told her that, even though her body will be ready in her teens, most girls wait until they're in their twenties to have babies.

But that raised the question of how they wait.  That one's kind of a stumper, when you're talking to a seven-year-old.  So I said, "Well, first they have to fall in love with someone.  You have to have a daddy and a mommy both, to make a baby."

So then she asked, "Is that because you have to mix the two together somehow?"  And I said yes, dying quietly inside, waiting for the next question, the big one.

And then, in a wonderful, unexpected, miraculous reprieve, my daughter quickly jumped in and said, "Don't tell me about that, though.  I don't want to know."

"No problem," I told her.

Whew.