I had to clean out a closet yesterday in preparation for more renovations. I was dreading it. It was one of those deep closets that I wasn’t sure what I was going to find beyond what had been stuffed up in front, holding the avalanche of rest of the stuff, at bay. It was actually like going through a time capsule of our family’s lives. I found a darling picture of my soon-to-be high school graduate riding his tyke-sized John Deere tractor around. (brought a tear to my eye) I found a collage of pictures made for us by friends when we had to move from our previous home, from our previous state, from our previous lives. (brought several tears to my eyes, mostly nostalgia for our friends and a different era, but also nostalgia for my younger face and body) I also found our paperback copy of “Where Did I Come From?” (this one just brought a chuckle to my heart)
“Where Did I Come From?” is a most user-friendly, easy-to-read, straight-forward, clinical, yet cartoon-ish book that explains “the birds and the bees” to your kids. It was published in 1973 and this book is how I got my knowledge about the “birds and the bees” from my mom. I couldn’t find a better way to go about “home-schooling” human sexuality, so I kept the family tradition up. Basically, all you have to do is hand the interesting, curious book to your kid, let them read it, ask a couple of probing questions to make sure that they have actually read the book and then ask them if they have any further questions. The only question one of my sons had after finishing the book was, “Ugh, is there any OTHER way?” Keep in mind that he was probably in the 4th or 5th grade.
My kids were always a couple of years older than most of my friends’ kids (we got an early start), so when the time became necessary, I lent the book out quite often. I think that this particular copy of “Where Did I Come From?” taught most of our play group, the neighborhood pool club kids, and even perhaps most of our local elementary school all about human reproduction (in an age appropriate manner, with parental supervision, of course). In retrospect, I should have had everyone sign it, on a specialized book plate, after they had read it. It would probably have made this copy even more valuable and interesting. I threw away a lot of clutter yesterday, but I couldn’t come around to tossing out this funny little book. It might come in handy to give to my kids, when they have kids who are starting to question certain things. Family traditions are precious and amusing and usually have good stories from whence they came.