Monday, February 22, 2010

Explanations

A little while ago I noticed that Natalie kept starting sentences with, "when/after the baby POPS (she would emphasize this word) out of your tummy..." I started to realize that she literally thought that my tummy was going to explode, like a balloon, and the baby would come out. She didn't seem to be disturbed by this, but I started to think that at some point this might worry her. Morbid/scary stuff seems to fascinate her, but it does scare her too.

So one night I thought it would be a good idea to explain... (can you already see what's coming?)

ME: "Natalie, you know the baby is not going to actually pop out of my tummy. It's not going to pop like a balloon when the baby comes out."

NATALIE: "Oh."

Long pause...

NATALIE: "How is the baby going to get out?"

Okay, I was about 70% sure I would get this question too. Though I wasn't smart enough to come up with an answer beforehand. Now I've always heard that when little kids ask these types of questions, they are really looking for a much simpler answer than often try to give them. They don't/can't understand things in the same complexity that we do; so easy, simple answers are really all they are looking for; they don't really want the whole story.

Yeah right.

ME: "Well, there is a sort of tunnel for the baby to come out."

I was already patting myself on the back for that one. Nice, simple, easy to understand. I gave her the truth, packaged nicely for an almost 5 year old.

NATALIE: "Mom, where's the tunnel?"

Great. That one I didn't see coming, and I went into 'skirt around the issue' mode. How do I answer that? Do I explain that to a 4 year old? Umm....

So now about every week or so I will randomly get "mom, where's the tunnel the baby's going to come out of?" I finally did try to explain, but I don't think she really got it.

So she still asks, and I still don't really know what to say. I'm thinking I shouldn't have bothered her in her initial theory.

Here's a recent picture of my inquisitive little question asker. She got a new dress and new shoes to wear to church, and she looked so cute. She told me "everyone in my class is going to tell me 'oh Natalie! You are so beautiful!'"


2 comments:

Rifle Fam said...

Isn't it fun when they're old enough to want to figure everything out. Try explaining it to an almost 7 year old boy who's very into details (and is GOING to remember everything you say). :) Fun times.

And Natalie, you do look beautiful!

Destiny said...

Love those talks, they're not uncomfortable at all.