I was standing in my kitchen making dinner as I do every night and my son who is eight years old walked up to me. He comes in for a hug and tells me how much he loves me. This is very typical for him – he is a very sweet child (when he isn’t bugging his younger siblings)…and then he dropped a bomb of a question…the one I have been dreading for some time.
He asked me what sax was. I was confused and asked him to clarify. He gave me a strange look, and then I asked him to spell out the word. It came very clear that he wasn’t asking me about a saxophone. He spelled it out S-E-X.
Now, just to be clear – reaction and body language was “cool and calm” but in my head I am screaming OMG…OMG…how am I supposed to deal with this – and where is Suni (my husband) – hoping he could help out with such a question.
But instead I very calmly say “Ah sex, well, that is when a Mommy and a Daddy make a baby.” I wonder if this will satisfy his curiosity. His response “oh” - and he has a funny look on his face and I can see there might be a few more questions lurking behind.
So I ask, “Do you have any other questions?” He says that he does. I say “go ahead and ask away”, trying my hardest to be very cool. He asks; “What is 1 million plus 3?”