The family went out to Zips for dinner tonight. Jennifer wanted to treat me - Zips is one of my favorite greasy hamburger joints but she is not the biggest of fans. As we sat eating dinner Emma, Kayla and myself began to reminisce all of the Daddy/Daughter dates that we had several years ago. On Friday nights I would go over to a friends house and play video games with a bunch of High School students and Jr. High Students. Our friend had a daughter that was a couple of years older than Emma and the girls loved playing with her.
Well, during dinner the girls wanted to know why we didn't do that anymore and I explained to them that he had gotten married and that didn't fit into his lifestyle anymore. The girls took that in stride and continued eating. Then Emma said, so this is his second marriage? I explained to her that he had not been married before and had made a mistake earlier in life. He had a daughter with a woman but they were never married. I was so consumed with my Zip's Papa Joe burger and zesty fry sauce that I never saw Emma's next question coming. But Dad, I thought you said that you have to get married to have babies?!? How did he have a baby and not be married?"
Suddenly my 7 year old, 3 year old and 2 year old were all ears! Never in all of their lives have they all looked so inquisitively at me at exactly the same moment. But no worries, I am a Pastor and have worked around children and with parents for many years. So I said the first thing that came to mind..."Uhhhhhhhh!"
The Elders' at my church would have been dumbstruck...Patrick didn't have something to say. (lol)
So I did what any good Pastor who is scrambling for an answer would do...I turned the question back on her! "Well, where do you think they come from?" Emma wasted no time, "Well, somewhere around Mommie's tummy but that is because you are married. So how does a baby get born between two people who are NOT married?"
I am gathering my thoughts now and am very close to pulling out the old "lifeline" answer..."we will have to talk about that when you get older". Meanwhile, Jennifer is fighting hard not to burst out laughing.
"Well Emma, it takes a man and a woman to have a baby. It is God's design for that baby to be born from two Christians who are married." At this point I think I have given her a pretty good biblical answer as well as some more details and I am hoping that she returns to her corn dog, but it was a futile hope.
"Well, what does the man have to do? The woman has to carry the baby and that's a lot of work." Drats!! She is smarter than she is supposed to be. Jennifer can no longer hold her laughter and the other three see their Mom laughing and join in. Emma says "Whaaaat?!? thinking that everyone is in on something that she is not. I can't really go any further in my explanation because my other 3 are still sitting there and plus I haven't really thought through how I am going to explain this to MY daughter! So I pull out that line that has saved me more times then I can count - "Well, that is another discussion for another time...now eat your corn dog."
They grow up too stinkin fast!
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Daddy, Where Do Babies Come From?
Posted by paddy1mac at 12:28 AM
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1 comments:
Ha, ha, ha...I can hear Emma asking you those questions! We never are prepared for their questions! Agh!
amy
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