How to have THE talk: Parent to Child Explaining "Where Babies Come From"

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Recently, my 12-year-old son told me he wanted to ask me a question. He followed that with, "Mom, where do babies come from?" He is number 3 of 6 children. We have had this discussion in our home several times already, but it changes based on the age of the kids at the time. Our kids are getting older now. We have 2 teenagers now, and the next two are close behind. Their mind frames now are different as well as their body awareness. Since he asked this question again, this told me that it was time to revisit this conversation, and to do it with all the kids.

Pregnancy pic from baby 6
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Being around babies, and seeing their mother pregnant is not new to them. I spent literally spent 10 years straight being pregnant and nursing, and my oldest daughter is 15.
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We decided to gather as a family that night with all the kids: 15, 13, 12, 11, 9, and 7 years old. My oldest 2 are girls, and we have 4 boys bringing up the rear. This is going to be asked by your kids, and you can answer their questions, or they will hear other hypotheses from their peers. With correct information, they will be able to weed through all the detritus that they may hear from school friends.

You don't have to make anyone uncomfortable with talking about hormones, attraction, or romance at this point. Keep it pretty much about biology. This is a science lesson. I only used two main sources for my information, aside from first-hand knowledge, of course. :)

We started off showing them videos from www.babycenter.com
I used this website a lot during my pregnancies to get information, and because they have some excellent videos showing various stages of the pregnancy. We pulled up a laptop and showed each of these videos to our kids.
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Pregnancy weeks 1-9 Video
Pregnancy Weeks 10-14 Video
Pregnancy Weeks 15-20 Video
Pregnancy Weeks 21-27 Video
Pregnancy Weeks 28-37 Video

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After going through the baby's development inside the mother's uterus, we moved on to teaching the reproductive systems of Men and Women. For this information, I also showed these slides on my laptop from www.MensHealthWeb.weebly.com

Male and Female Reproductive System Slides

Here are some examples from the slides that we showed our kids:

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We answered all questions as they popped up. They were basic biology questions, and we also went over periods (that information is in the slides also). After seeing the female reproductive system picture, my 11-year-old son said, "Let me guess the vagina is where the penis goes." Yep! The boys also said they were glad that they were not girls, so that they didn't have to get a period with "blood coming out every month."

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I surreptitiously took a picture of them during the "presentation."

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Lastly, after going through the baby development inside the womb and reproductive systems, we showed them one more video showing a computerized video of how fertilization occurs. It is very G-rated, and perfect for kids.

Fertilization Video from www.babycenter.com

This is what we used, and it went over really well. You may end up having this conversation multiple times because as I said earlier, kids go through many stages during their physical and mental/emotional development. Talk to you kids about sex. Not only will your kids change through the years, so will their friends. Your kids may get information from outside sources including teachers at school. Teaching your children gives you control not only what they learn, but it also is able to give them a foundation for when they are presented with more information, or misinformation (aka locker room talk). When they ask about it, don't shy away from it. Be grateful they came to you. That shows that they trust you. Honor that. Present it as a science lesson and answer their questions. Any questions for me? Let me know, and I will be happy to answer away.



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So much better teaching your kids than letting someone else teaching them for you!

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Pretty much! Especially with all the political interventions happening nowadays in our school, government, and media.

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Excellent info! I saw from your intro post that you homeschool. I also homeschooled my two and was grateful for the opportunity.

Keep up the good work!

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One thing I like about it is how much closer my kids are to each other and how much more family time we get to have. They will go to school one day, bit I am looking at all the positives until then. Some days are rough, and others are easy. We take it one day at a time. I am glad to be with them!

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Great morals.
Have you done the "pornography" talk with the 15 yo child?

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Not specifically in a while, but since my boys are getting older and my daughters are already in their teens, we will do this. We have talked about sex in the context as well that we believe in abstaining until marriage. And the purpose of families and raising children. We will be having that conversation soon because you can't assume that they are immune to it, and that will probably be done one-on-one.

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Your husband looks about as confused as the kids.
The picture is hilarious.

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Lol. I rather enjoyed all the faces in the pic when looking at it later, so had to post it. They all express something a little differently. I wish I would have captured my girls' faces also, but I was trying to he sneaky, so it didn't happen.

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This is fantastic! Wow, thank you so much for sharing. My boys are 8 and 10 (going on 9 and 11 soon). This lesson will be invaluable. I followed you to your blog from @dreemsteem's post as I really resonated with your comment and I am so glad I did 😊Following. !PIZZA !ALIVE ... now I'm going to check out some of your other posts lols.

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@samsmith1971 thank you so much! I am so glad you found that helpful. I know it really freaks people.out sometimes to even broach the subject, but our kids need this info. It makes me so happy it will help you.

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My eldest who is 10 going on 11 has already attended the sex education class in PSHE class at school but he still seems fairly clueless, bless him, from what he has said of it anyway. I'll see what he thinks of your clips.🙏

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