Where do babies come from?

 With my first child, I was only 21 and not married. When I told my mother I was pregnant, her response was absolutely classic. "I suppose it's too late to tell you about the birds and the bees now."

I mean really. The bluebird of happiness had just flown over me and shat on me, and you want to talk about the birds and the bees? I'm allergic to bees and have literally been shat on by seagulls on 3 separate occasions. Birds and the bees. Whoever came up with that?

Well nobody knows really who came up with that saying and the one about the stork delivering babies. It was just a way parents got out of having heavy sex discussions when their children asked penetrating questions about their origins.

My own children were no exception, asking the difficult question earlier rather than later. I decided to not go the stork or birds and bees route. I would be honest and tell them the truth and all the gory details. I would not be my mother.

So, when my oldest daughter asked me the dreaded question, I told her that she was wind-pollinated. I explained that I was lying on the beach suntanning, when there was a sudden gust of wind and voila! Say no more. For years I think she truly believed she was wind-pollinated.

When my son asked me where he came from, I told him that I'd found him under a rock. He just accepted that and never questioned it. Years later I found out that he thought he had been abandoned by his parents and I had adopted him. Of course he now knows that he's definitely my son as we are very similar in looks and personality.

My youngest daughter, I came up with something different. She was born in September, nine months after Christmas, so I told her I was filled with the festive Christmas spirit. Probably the closest to the truth.

What have you told your children when they asked where babies come from? Have you gone into explicit details or have you made up a story?

Cindy Vine is the author of both fiction and non-fiction books available on Amazon. Subscribe to her YouTube channel Cindy Vine Portugal to follow her journey as a retired teacher living her dream on an off-grid homestead in Portugal.