Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Where DON'T Babies Come From?

Yes, it was in fourth grade, my last year on primary school. Guess that's why I was so shocked afterwards. It lasted for several years (which is good for preventing teenage pregnancies). By now, I have a three-year-old daughter, so, obviously, the shock didn't last forever.

This event was sort of the last part of our first (very moderate) sex ed class. We had another one in sixth grade, which was more interesting, yet still moderate. Since I secretly started reading a certain magazine of my parents' around fourth grade (which was definitely nfic and very enlightening), I was way ahead of my class mates. Much to my poor teacher's chagrin.

The Miracle of Life? We watched that movie in the NINTH grade, and the girl in the row next to me threw up.

Meanwhile, I had 19 years of Catholic schooling (grade school, high school and college!), and I think we had one sex ed class in the fifth grade. It consisted of us reading out loud Family Life textbooks in class. Fat lot of help that did me LOL! We finally had a real biology class later on, and I said, "Ahhhh, THAT'S what really happens."

JD

I honestly don't remember the title any more. I had other things on my mind than that stupid title...

Heh. Me, I pretty much ignored sex ed classes in middle school, and then near the end of high school I got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction. Trust me, the Nfic there leaves NOTHING to the imagination--and sometimes now, I wish it had.

I haven't read through that yet, but you'll probably find some interesting theories here: http://www.iusedtobelieve.com/sex/ and particularly http://www.iusedtobelieve.com/sex/getting_pregnant/

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Two years ago when my son was ten he brought up the subject of where babies came from. So, after a few moments of sheer panic, I sat him down and told him the basics.

He looked at me for a few seconds in consideration and then asked for some clarification on just where things were supposed to go. "Part of the daddy goes inside the mommy?"

"That's right," I told him.

"This part?" he asked, gesturing at the part in question.

"Yes."

His brow furrowed and then he looked at me like I had lost my mind. He spread his hands in bewilderment and plaintively asked, "But how?!?"

There was only one way to answer that: "Ask me again when you're older."

He still hasn't asked - thank goodness.

Ah, man, Sue! Gah! I was on the phone talking to Dell customer service and they put me on hold while they checked something for me. I made the mistake of deciding to read your comments here. I wanted to die laughing - of course, right about the time the rep came back on the phone.

I had to clap my hand over my mouth really fast and just mumble yes or no until I recovered.

Oh, my. That was too funny! Thanks for the laugh... (hubby laughed too).

When I was born, my older (by 6 years) sister wanted to feed me to the dog because she wasn't too thrilled with the new baby. I guess this carried over into adulthood because when my daughter was born, she told her that I was found behind a trash dumpster!

Explaining where babies come from is easy if you've had them. I have two boys that are adopted... Now that's going to be a doozy!

SQD (who, despite what her sister says, does not smell like garbage)

This is true, but there would still be plenty of those critters that had had time to reach their intended target before the use of the CocaCola.


Okay, how old were you in fourth grade especially since that was your last year of primary school. I wonder if that corresponds to 4th grade in the States (or elsewhere). In the States, that would mean a child of 9 or 10. The last year of primary school in the States is the 5th of 6th grade. Some consider 6th grade to be the first year of middle school - some consider it to be the last year of primary school.

Wow, things certainly have changed a lot. When I was in 5th grade, we had a class where they told us about periods. Period - that was it. The boys always got herded off and wondered what the hoopla was all about. I don’t think I saw films of babies being born until I was in college. In high school, we had ‘health’ classes that told us about sperm from the male meeting up with ova from the female, but for the life of me, I don’t think they told us much about how they got there… I was always very interested in things about the human body, and I understood how babies got out and I knew all about the male and female body, but I didn’t truly understand the way things *really* happened until I read a somewhat graphic book. (‘Jaws’ to be exact. Boy was that an eye-opener. And what a book to learn that in… Sharks on one page and sex on the next… Let’s just saw the movie is not as graphic.)

Oh, Anna, that site is great. If you guys want a good laugh take a look. Here’s one little tidbit from there that had me laughing out loud: When I was little, I misunderstood the word 'testicles' for 'tonsils'. So, ever since my sex ed class in grade four, I would stare in shock at anybody that claimed that they had their tonsils removed.


My poor mom was always very honest with me, but she just couldn’t bring herself to tell me how that happened.

Bet he’s already found out.

My parents had a policy of "if you're old enough to ask, you're old enough to know." So I got the straight answer pretty early.

But Mom did joke about Macy's and stuff.

And Grandma was taught that women became pregnant from "catching a draft" (wind gust).

Don't you mean FoLCs?

From what I can gather from her profile, Olympe is from Germany. Europeans don't tend to be so uptight about sex, so I don't think it's that surprising, although I'm not sure how well nine or ten year olds would understand a movie like that.

FoLCs it is then...


Well, yes, I know where Olympe is from, but when I say things have changed, I meant more from an age difference. I know for a fact that I'm old enough to be Olympe's mother. (She teases me about that fact.) And I have no idea what's done in the States these days. So, I know we've heard from DS Dragon (I'm also old enough to be her mom). So how about some of you younger folks from the States? What goes on in those sex-ed classes these days? (I suppose I should tell you that it's been 25+ years since I graduated from high school.)

Think this had its origins in European folklore, but it could be universal. The belief was that trolls, leprechauns, elves or faeries might possibly swap babies or just leave a baby with a family. The reasoning was used to explain any child who was quite different from its parents, etc

Just thought - maybe the baby at the end of the series was a changeling

c.

That's pretty much what went on in my school days too, Nancy--except, I was determined NOT to be "interested" until I got married (which I haven't yet, so that plan's kind of moot)--and I only graduated from high school 5½ years ago.

Besides, those critters won't have to move that far any more - they're already boosted by Coca Cola...

In Germany, children usually start school at the age of six, so in fourth grade they're nine to ten years old.

Well, it depends on the federal state whether primary school ends with the fourth or sixth grade. And the system of secondary schools - it's hopelessly complicated. Depending on the state, there are two to five different types to choose from.

Good one!


Yes, I am from Germany. And the differences you mentioned are there. But my mom didn't get that sort of 'treatment'. And she really is as old as classicalla. And my grandmom (now 67) was already pregnant and still believed that children got out throught the navel... So, don't tell me about being or not being uptight.


Poor baby!

I believe the belief is mostly Irish and/or Scottish, but I could be mistaken.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone with my post . I had the impression that some people were surprised or shocked that a video like you described would be shown to fourth graders--so I pointed out the cultural difference to explain why it's not surprising to me. In my experience most European societies just aren't as uptight about sex as much of American society is. You can see what I mean by this just be turning on your TV. Nudity, for example, is not that big a deal. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine people and the media in, say, Germany or France reacting to something like Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction like much of the American public did.

Again, I didn't mean to offend and I apologize if I did.

Well, we got our sex education at the age of around eleven - the last year at primary school. It covered absolutely everything, so far as I remember, except one thing: they didn't explain that people did it purely for pleasure. So for a couple of years, I imagined that couples only had sex when they wanted to make a baby - say, once every two years or so. How innocent was I?

Yvonne

I didn't want to give the impression that I was offended. Sorry if I - once again - put my foot in my mouth. But, as my example comparing the experiences of my mother and classicalla shows, things weren't that different back then. But, obviously, we have developed differently. I mean, when I first heard about the American "NO NIPPLES, PLEASE" policy in comics - man, did I have a good laugh. It seemed so absurd at the time. By now I know that everything you do has to be fool- and lawproof in the states. I mean, if even those "intelligent designers" managed to force schools into teaching that stuff in biology - I mean, I would have understood that sort of thing in religious education, because that is where it belongs, but in biology? Honestly!


You should have seen the headlines! As usual, BILD was right on top of it. And not only for one day, mind you. (And not only BILD, I suppose. The others just weren't sporting headlines equally big and screaming.)


Same here. But I found other sources to straighten me out.

I don't recall having any sort of special assembly in elementary school. I have visions of some movie, but I have a feeling that was a mental image from either a Judy Blume novel (possibly Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret) or some other book I've read.

My parents didn't even both sitting down and explaining it to me. My brother, some friends, and I had found my father's magazines at a very tender age (6?), and I started reading my mother's romance novels at the age of 12. That, along with the medical dictionary, and other items of my mothers found around the same time filled out my sex ed better than my parents and school ever could.

However, my mom did joke when I was a kid that she was going to put me back into her stomach so that she could keep me young.