Monday, August 24, 2009

Those Dreaded Questions

Asperger's, autism, camping, difference, education, growing, nature, parenting, questions, sex ed
Hello readers! We've been out of contact for a little while for various reasons including a camping vacation. Life is starting to settle back into a routine as school approaches.

Speaking of school, we all know that the time will come when our children will have questions about topics that I, for one, don't particularly want to have to answer. Death, sex, why am I so different from everyone else...who actually looks forward to informing their kids about these things? Maybe lots of people look forward to these discussions, but I'm not one of them. Last night after Gus's bath this was the conversation that took place:

"What are these called?"

"Those are called testicles."

"What's in them?"

"Hmm...you know, that's really a good question for you to ask Daddy, since he has them too!...Daddy!"

Yeah, call me a wuss. I totally punked out of that one. So, DH came in and Gus started asking questions, that went fine until DH explained that testicles are involved with reproduction, "making babies," he clarified. "There are seeds in them."

"But I thought only women carried babies in their tummies."

"Uhh..."

At that point I had a compulsion to read MM her bedtime story and got out of there as soon as my legs would carry me. It's a good thing I remembered to open the door first or else I would have looked like a Loony Toon (but perhaps I looked that way anyway).

Later, I asked DH how he handled the questions. Apparently, Gus was pretty satisfied with testicles being some sort of seed machine and moved on to asking what was in his knee joints and where rashes come from. Maybe there isn't a need to panic just yet, but I've had a gentle reminder that the day is coming sooner than I thought. I'd better start getting some answers ready.

How have you handled, or how do you plan to handle, those uncomfortable topics with your child?

1 comment:

  1. I haven't had to have any of them talks yet. I honestly dread them!

    ReplyDelete

Welcome - thanks for sharing your insights!