So I was walking home from school with my soon to be six year old Zoe and she said,"When I was born was it natural or was it by caesarian?" She said this while making a cutting motion across her stomach. "Uh, naturally", I responded trying to look as cool an as unpuzzled as possible. "So do you know how we are made?" "Well, yeah, you mean how are we conceived?", I said trying not to use the phrase "where babies come from." I mean the kid's fluent in four languages and regularly uses words like profound and facile. "Do you?", I asked with a slight amount of apprehension. ""Yeah, sure, the man places his penis in the woman's vulva and then he gives the woman a baby and she makes it grow." Note that when Zoe mentioned penis and vulva she touched mine and then of course hers. This went on on one of the busiest pedestrian streets in Barcelona. "Is that right?" "Yep, about 95% of it is right on the money." "You and Mommy did that?" "Yep," Laughter ensued.
I spoke with Senyor Casas who owns the school that Zoe attends about the conversation that I had with her. Mr. Casas is a swell guy and is always available to chat about things like penises and vulvas. Yes, in Spain schools are required by law to educate the children in kindergarten about, gulp, sex. Being an American I was a little bothered by this. But you know, why not? They take the dark mysteries out of it right away. The kids don't seem to freak out with this info. It sure beats my introduction at a much older age which lead to all sorts of confusion regarding appropriate orifices. The less said about this the better.
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2 comments:
Hey Hey Robin,
Wonderful wonderful piece about sex ed! We have a slightly different experience in our house...In Canada (and as a result of my funky liberal artist parents) at the tender age of 2, Kalil had been explained everything by us and his daycare, and so, he began by approaching us one Sunday morning first thing we opened our eyes....He had grabbed a condom from our stash, handing it to his father asking Mario to collect some "Spam" to "Get" him a little brother.
Later with 4 year old, Scorpio, Serafina, who had been exposed to a few wild Japanese Porno flicks when passing non-chalantly thru the channels on the tele one afternoon...(Of course being available on the television at all hours here in Spain, she witnessed just about everything from "fruit to nuts").... As you can imagine, now she embarasses the Hell out of her pubescent brother, Kalil, by simply asking him if he craves juicy "watermelon" ? Our son at this phase, turns beet red and leaves the room...Poor guy! So not to worry...it's all part of the growing game. Better informed than Mis-informed! Besos,
Ellen
we always wait for more..
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