Well, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. Luke had a sleepover at a friend's house this past weekend, and the topic of where babies come from arose between he and his friend. Friend knew the basics of the birds and the bees, and thought it was a good idea to let Luke in on the secret. C.B. happened to run a couple things over to Luke that evening just shortly after it had happened, and the other parents gave him a heads up. Then he came home and gave me the heads up.
I had all that evening and the next morning to worry and fret about it. What do you tell a very innocent 7 year old? What exactly does he know already (as of the last 12 hours)?
Yikes, I just think 7 is a little young. But from the reading I was able to do while anxiously waiting for the new, worldly Luke to come home, age 7 might be a little young, but not worlds away from when we should be having a talk about some of the basics.
Still, there's just something that changes when your kid knows about sex. He of course does not want to discuss it at all, and we left the conversation pretty much at what he'd learned the night before. I guess we just confirmed his newfound knowledge, since I don't think he necessarily believed his buddy. I hope we did the right thing. I don't think it would have been right to ignore it. And we certainly couldn't deny it. But still I wonder if we could have handled it differently. What is it about this parenting thing that always has you second guessing yourself?
2 comments:
you totally did the right thing... Auntie Nee Nee was nine when she started asking questions, and to my great good fortune, PBS was airing an hour of cutting edge graphics regarding how sex works that evening, so I figured "why not?", and we watched it together... I have never regretted this, though sometimes I wonder if this explains some of NeeNee's more idiosycratic quirks.... just kiddin, Rob.... I strongly feel that when kids seek info they should get (age appropriate) ACCURATE info... Love Dad.
Wish I could offer some advice by experience, but not so much. These are the kinds of things that have always scared me into thinking that going kidless is the safe route! You too shall live through this, as I'm sure a great many other parents already have. I know, it doesn't make it any easier.
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