Marla Culliton and her husband, Steven, of Swampscott, Mass., have 7-year-old twins, Jacob and Naomi. “When they were 4, I told them, ‘First you have to get married, then you have to have a nice house, then you can go to a doctor, and he can help you,’ ” said Mrs. Culliton, a dental hygienist. “At 5, they said, ‘How is the baby made?’ I said: ‘They come from a sperm and an egg. The doctor made you in a dish.’ ”
More proof from The New York Times that people are idiots. I am willing to bet that if I asked that mother whether it was appropriate to tell a 5-year-old about the mechanisms of sex, she'd probably tell me that they are too young to know. So, instead tell a 5-year-old that she was made in a dish. That ought to get comprehended without a hitch.
I don't think adotion, IVF, surrogacy, or anything like that should be kept from a child. But in this eagerness to be "honest and open" with children, and let them know their "birth story," people tend to attribute maturity to children long before they are really at that stage.
Melissa Brisman and her daughter, Simmie, age 6, were catching a matinee of “Marley and Me” in Tenafly, N.J.It was supposed to be a movie about a dog named Marley. But up on the big screen, Marley’s owner, a glowing Jennifer Aniston, kept getting pregnant — serenely, effortlessly pregnant (after one miscarriage).
Jumping up on her seat, Simmie loudly asked her mother, “How come you’re the only mommy who can’t get pregnant?”
“Sit down,” whispered Mrs. Brisman, who is a lawyer specializing in surrogacy. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Hey, dimwad, if you don't want your kid talking about it in public, why the hell did you tell her? She's six - the social niceties you expect from your peer group have some years to come about.
When my kids were of kindergarten age and asked where babies come from, I had a one-word answer . . . "Mommies."
2 comments:
They don't come from the stork?!
Seriously, you're so right re: "too much information" on a topic really young children don't need all the details of.
Story goes that young 7 year old Bobby came home one day and said to his parents "Where do I come from?"
Hastily his parents conferred and figured if he was old enough to ask, he was old enough to know. Out came charts, pictures, line drawings, etc.
Afterwards they asked him "Btw, what made you ask?" And he said "The new kid from across the street to me he was from Pittsburgh after I asked him where he came from."
When my 4-year-old son asks me where babies come from, I answer "God".
:) Catherine
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