Saturday, February 07, 2009

How is Babby Formed?

Ah, the value of learning from Yahoo! Answers. Take this question and answer for example:


This came to mind as Alan and I just got into a half hour long conversation about were babies come from, on our way up the canyon.

It's surprising how easy it was. That's the sort of thing they teach you to fear as a parent, but by the end of it I'd answered all his questions comfortably and honestly. We even got into pretty involved topics of genetics, identical vs fraternal twins, and the influence of genes on both a person's body and mind.

Okay, so there were some lies of omission, but it worked and led to a good discussion and some wonderful realizations about cells and genes on his part. Someday they'll ask how people physically bring the two "cells, containing half your plans" together to build another cell that uses those plans to divide and make more cells until you have a baby... I'll deal with that then :-). I'm just glad to get this far without leaving him with what I had gleamed from cartoons at his age and beyond: the vague idea that it has something to do with cabbage and big awkward birds.

5 comments:

Craig said...

That video makes me laugh hysterically every time I watch it - and I've watched it a lot.

I'm not sure when it was that I figured out how it all works, but it was certainly not from my parents. They weren't big on disseminating information about awkward (to them) topics.

Unknown said...

Great video!

I'm not sure when I found out. I don't remember my parents ever discussing the subject with me. I think I figured it out while on the playground.

Scot said...

Craig: "That video makes me laugh hysterically every time I watch it - and I've watched it a lot."

I like it because it makes me feel like a tolerable speller.

"They weren't big on disseminating information about awkward (to them) topics."

Tell them that's why you're gay, lack of instruction :-). Trouble is it's either from parents or, as Evan says:

Evan "I think I figured it out while on the playground."

Exactly what I want to avoid. Alan came home from school the other day telling me a friend told him to search for "hot chicks" on google. Fortunately, our 1st graders don't get unsupervised internet time :-).

It's such a sensitive subject for many parents and you don't want your kids teaching on the playground either. That's why I was so happy with how this turned out. He ended up with an accurate model of how a new human comes about, but without any of the buzz-words that would cause a fellow parent to faint in horror over what the gays are teaching their kids :-).

maybemaybenot said...

Gawd, this makes me laugh so hard. I keep making my husband watch it but he is laughing now too. So funny I can barely stand it...

Scot said...

(boy, I'd make a horrible spy :-))

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I still get a big kick out of it and I have it memorized :-).