The Facts of Life

During the last couple of weeks,Annie has been asking how and where things are made.We have discussed factories and looked on the Net to see photos of houses been built,cars being put together and clothes being made.So she seems to get the idea.I nearly made a big blunder when she asked who made and where her doll was made; I went for the factory option to be looked at with narrowed eyes.Her comment was ,"But Father Christmas made my doll.You said so."Oops! I managed to cover my tracks by saying something about the elves in Father Christmas' toy factory making her doll and breathed a sigh of relief when she accepted the answer.

Last night,she suddenly came up to me before bed and asked the inevitable question; "Who made me?".I have to admit that although as a parent we know this question is going to be asked,I really did expect to hear it quite so soon;she's only 3 and a half for goodness sake.But asked she did and answer I did.Thank goodness,mum brought across a couple of "How Babies Are Made" type of books that I was given when I was 5 .So we ploughed through them and Annie learned all about eggs and sperm and fertilization in plants,chickens,dogs and then humans.She was very interested in everything but the plants(was a bit boring) and after we had been through both books,she started pretending to be an egg herself and grew into a baby.So she seemed to understand some of the concepts and was fascinated by the baby frogs that come from the daddy's chin-chin(penis) so Kenichi had to be examined,ho ho.

And you know that there was always one kid at school who knew all the details about the facts of life and everyone crowded around them to listen in awe?Well,it amuses me to know that most probably in the next year or so,that kid will be my Annie.And I bet all the parents of the kiddies who go home and tell their mums and dads what they heard will be cursing "that bloody foreign woman" for being so upfront with her daughter;)