The gruesome rule of birth according to a 4 year old
I love having a four year old. Three was pretty good too, but N was more of a watcher and general chatterer then. He didn’t really question and challenge like he does now. At nursery parents evening last night, they also mentioned how he was more interested in finding out, learning and asking questions than previously.
I love that he’s now showing more interest in the world around him, and questioning. Even if it does mean a lot of ‘why?’s.
It also means we have some interesting conversations. Mostly these occur in bed after story time. Why he can’t talk more in the car after nursery I don’t know, but it’s like he needs a couple of hours to unwind his mind, and absorb everything from the day before building up all his questions again. Mind you, at the same time he doesn’t stop chattering but it’s more about the present rather than what he’s been up to during the day.
Now it’s Spring time and the weather’s better, and the evenings are lighter, N spends a lot of evenings after nursery on the farm with his dad until bedtime. I’m hoping his stamina continues once he starts school because he’s certainly like a Duracell bunny most of the time. He’s really keen on the sheep and lambs, and obviously we’ve got new calves on the farm as well.
But I couldn’t believe one of our latest conversations that he started before he went to sleep.
“Mummy, babies come out with blood on them’. No question, just a statement. I was wondering what I would say in reply.
‘Er, well yes most do I suppose’, frantically hoping that the conversation wouldn’t continue too far, and wondering where on earth he’d seen or heard that.
‘Yes, lambs come out with blood on them, and baby calves come out with blood and the mummy wipes and cleans them’. Phew, back to the animal world again.
‘Ah yes, they do. It’s very messy when they’re born’.
‘Did I come out with blood on? How did I come out?’. I thought he’d taken in the being cut out of mummy’s tummy conversation we’d had a while back, but obviously it was back on his mind.
‘I guess so. Although I don’t remember seeing you with blood on, you were just very pink, screaming and had lots of black hair. My tummy was cut to get you out so it probably wasn’t as messy as some babies’ arrivals’
‘Yes, babies come out with lots of blood. Where do those come out of?’. I thought I was going to have to explain in detail about natural childbirth, but his mind was already wondering off in another direction by that point.
It’s definitely a case of thinking on your feet when you’ve got a child questioning everything from the weather to birth, with everything possible inbetween. I think I need to build up my stock of answers in readiness for the future questions that I’m sure are on the way.
What awkward questions have you been asked?
I think you handled those questions beautifully and it must be so interesting for him to see the animals being born. My first experience of birth was seeing a calf born and I remember being completely fascinated by it.
I remember the same as well, although we were some way away. Definitely interesting having animals to refer to.
Oh I think that’s a great answer and at least he’s seen the animals so he’s got a bit of an idea what’s going on. We thankfully never had the how did the baby get in your tummy question, but I did have to explain to Kitty how her brother was going to get out which was a bit of an interesting one!
It definitely makes things easier to explain thing from an animal point of view first. Means I might get away with specifically explaining the human version because he’ll already know according to animals.
I’m dreading this stage, I’m not great at thinking that quickly! x
Neither am I. I remember nephew number 3 asking me lots of questions when he was this age, and I just used to make up rubbish to tell him. Poor boy probably grew up thinking a whole lot of things were true!