Parenthood Rite of Passage

Last night as I was reading Little C his beloved Creature Report, he asked me a question about whale babies. He wanted to know if the mommy whale lays eggs or not. We went through the whole "whales are mammals" thing and naturally this evoked even more questions...

His curious mind led him to think of his own birth and the following dialogue took place:

C: When I was in your tummy did I come out of your mouth?

Me: Ummm, no.

C: Oh, so did the doctor use special tools to cut open your tummy and that's how I came out? (He brought up the cutting open and special tools part because he just learned about his Grandpa's knee replacement surgery and it was all fresh in his mind)

Me: No. You weren't cut out of my tummy.

C: So then where did I come out of?

I became hot and uncomfortable and I paused and had an entire conversation with myself in my head on how to handle this situation before it happened... I told him. I simply just told him the part of human anatomy that he was born from.

He repeated it back to me in the form of a question just to make sure he heard right and when I confirmed it I was certain there'd be more questioning. Instead he promptly turned his attention back to his favorite read and started sharing with me all the facts about leatherback sea turtles. The whole thing was over just as fast as it started.

I share this story because in a way I'm very glad it happened. I wasn't at all prepared for it but it was a parenthood rite of passage that I think I handled to the best of my ability. It wasn't a big deal and it was the truth. And if he takes nothing else away from our conversation I hope it resonated with him that he can ask me anything and trust he'll get a straight answer.

But more than anything... I hope he doesn't have a new topic of discussion at preschool today! Ha!