The Inevitable Question

Sooner or later, the moment had to come.  The moment that makes otherwise intelligent moms and dads suddenly start to stammer and stutter and blush and laugh nervously.  The "where do babies come from?" question.

I thought I was ready for this.  After all, I have the first two books of the God's Design for Sex series, and I've read the first one to Josiah without any trouble.  The second one is in the top of our homeschool closet, waiting for the right time, the time when Josiah himself would show his curiosity and signal us that it was time to dive more deeply into the subject with him.  I know one mistake parents often make is to wait too long, thinking that their child isn't ready yet, when in reality, the child is indeed learning about the topic but from unreliable sources.  I didn't want to make that mistake, but with seemingly no interest on Josiah's part, I was hesitant to just whip out the book and jump into the topic already.  So I waited...

...until tonight when he made it clear that he'd like to know more.  Groan.  How am I supposed to do this anyway?  Oh, I know, make Jeff deal with it!  Ah, the pleasure of having sons and letting the daddy be the one to have "the talk" with them!  :)  (I did read in a parenting book, however, that it's very important for the mother to be involved in some conversations of this sort with the son and not just leave it up to the father.  Something about sons needing to hear from a woman's perspective how God made girls and how to treat them and stuff like that...)  :)

The context of Josiah's question was interesting:  he accompanied me to the wedding rehearsal of my niece who is getting married tomorrow; I am playing the piano for her wedding.  She is marrying her long-time live-in boyfriend, who is the father of her son--this son is older than Josiah and was born while my niece was still in high school.  During the course of the evening, Josiah asked me whether my niece had ever been divorced (another recent topic of questioning around here), because he thought she must have been married before in order to have a son.  I told him that she had not been married before--or divorced--and that the man she was marrying was her son's daddy.  I could tell that the wheels were turning in his sweet little head; and when we got out to our vehicle after the rehearsal, he asked me how it could be that she already had a child?  I said that the best way is for a couple to get married first, and then to have a child, but sometimes people make mistakes and don't do it that way.  He pressed further:  But what do they do to have a baby?  

"Uh...well...laughter...they...pause...umm...giggles...well, we really don't have time to talk about it now because we're almost to the restaurant, but let's talk about it more later, OK?" was all I could get out of my mouth.  Not a very mature, graceful way to handle it!  I'd better get busy and lay out that book--for Jeff to read to Josiah!!  :)

Oh, Josiah, you're one step closer to becoming a man; and although I rejoice in your growth and wouldn't have it any other way, my heartstrings get tugged as I watch you mature.  Can I always call you "Josiah my-uh, my sweetie pie-uh," even when you're 50?  Will you always be my little boy, my indescribably precious firstborn, even when you're grown?

~ picture taken by Jeff last Saturday at Wildwood Park