GOT MILK?

"Mommy...What's A Climax?...And I don't mean the kind in a book either!" Yes, this was the question that was posed to me, by my son, just a couple of years ago. However, I remember it like it was yesterday and I was completely mortified! At this point, I am stalling trying to think of a quick, yet appropriate answer. Instead, all I could think of was: "Well, where did you get that from?". His response being: "I heard it in school." punctuated with a sideways smirk that indicated, he possibly already knew the answer. Aaaargh!!!! Why me? Why now? I'm not ready for this yet! I'm beginning to feel alone in this dillemma...lol but, it's obvious that I am not the only single momma out there with this predicament. In an episode that my co-worker/friend Tionna H. recalled to me, she too, had to figure out how to explain the old adage of "the birds and the bees" to her son:

"One day my son (who was 9 or 10 at the time) and I were talking and I asked him was there any questions he had about sex. He said no but he did wonder about breasts. He said, him and a friend were outside the school and an older girl was running near them and she had fairly big breasts. The friend said “wow she has a lot of breast milk in there, I’d drink a whole gallon” So my son wanted to know why some girls had milk and some didn’t. He said he knew I didn’t because mine were too small. It took everything in me to answer him with a straight face."

It is times like these, that a day in the life of SingleMommaHood can be somewhat perplexing. I mean you don't want to lie but, then again you don't want to tell the truth. You wish that they were babies again, when they didn't ask questions and all they did was eat, sleep, cry & poop! And being the mother of boy child, it's one of those "Damn! Where's his dad when I need him" moments. So, what do you do? At the end of the day, as always, honesty is the best policy. Be straight forward but, careful to choose appropriate and understandable language, without sugar coating the issue. You can also be creative, without being vulgar. As most of us know, kids have a greater understanding of life than we like to give them credit for. Don't hesitate to be straight up because, they surely don't and won't, with us.

Oh yeah...How did I answer that question, you ask? Well it went a little somethin' like this:

"Well, the kind of climax that you're talking about, is very much like those in a book. Just like in a book you have all the excitement and suspense, where it builds up to the best part of the story. Well the climax in sex is the best part of a story but, the build up is more like an explosion that makes your whole body feel good."

Fortunately for me, this answer was good enough...until the very next week: "Mommy, what's a p****! (Yeah, figure it out).