"The" Talk

Our regular bedtime routine always includes "cuddle time". This is when stories are over, the lights are out, the kids are tucked in and we lay down with them to talk about their day or to just lie quietly for a few minutes.

My Boy almost immediately started this conversation last night.

"Can boys have babies?"

"No, only girls can have babies in their tummies" I reply (nevermind it's "boys" and "girls" instead of "men" and "women").

"Remember when you told me that some boys want to marry boys?" he asks.

"Yes?" I wonder where this is going...

"So how do they have babies?" he inquires.

"If they want a baby, they would need to adopt" I tell him.

"And some girls want to marry girls?" he continues.

"Yes, and if they want to have a baby they would need to adopt or...." hmmm, how do I put this? "...or get a donation from a man." Oh boy, how far will this go?

"...a donation of what?" he asks.

"...well, you see, men have sperm inside them and women have eggs inside them. And when sperm gets with the egg, it turns into a baby." I'm thinking, thank goodness it's dark in here and he can't see my nervous smile and freaked out look.

He thinks about this.... "and where is the sperm?"

"The sperm is in.... in the scrotum which is that stuff that is below your penis..." I'm wondering now, does he have that? Isn't there some thing about boys "dropping" or something when they hit puberty? I didn't have to think about this for very long...

"hmmm, I wondered what that was" he responds. "And how does the sperm get to the egg?"

Oy! "well, when a man and a woman get married and want to have a baby...they um...have sex and when they make love the sperm comes out his penis and gets into the woman." whew, please don't ask me to explain HOW it gets in the woman...please don't ask, please don't ask....

instead he asks.... "and how does sperm get out of the penis?"

hmmm.....

"you know, that's a really good a question...and I'm not exactly sure how to explain that. maybe we should get a book at the library." whew!

"okay, that sounds like a good idea."

"sweetie, you can ask me anything you want to know...anytime"

At this point the subject changes and I'm off the hook.

And as I was thinking of this conversation and couldn't help but wondering - where on earth did this conversation come from? I know he's 8.5 yrs old so it's bound to come out eventually...but why tonight? After thinking about it I remember that we were watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. Oh right, thanks Mike Rowe for showing us how to castrate baby lambs tonight...that lead to the question of "what is castration" and I'm sure that had something to do with this! LOL