We were out for breakfast-my birthday breakfast-my teenaged daughters, my nine year old son, and me. The kids were quibbling in obnoxious sibling fashion, when my son decided to turn the conversation to more serious subjects. Very sweetly, he asked: “Mom, I know that babies grow inside the mother’s stomach from eggs, but how does the man’s genetic material get into the egg.?”

At that moment, it hit me-I had never even thought to talk with him about sex. Not since his youngest sister was born, (when he was 4) and we discussed the gestational process. At the time, he didn’t seem to care how she had gotten in there-he was much more interested in how she was going to get out.

The moments dragged on, and then out of no where, my 16 year old piped up: “It’s in the ring. The man’s genetic material is encoded in the wedding ring. Actually, the DNA is in the women’s diamond, that’s why it is so sparkly. He puts it on her finger next to the wedding ring, and the DNA gradually releases and enters her body after they get married.”

Brilliant! I was truly impressed. “Did you just think of that?” I asked. My 14 year old daughter quickly hissed, like a goose, and pointed out that my comments would definitely affect the story’s credibility, seeing as my son was listening to this exchange.

The ring story got us through my birthday breakfast. By afternoon, I figured I’d better set him strait and save him some future therapy bills, so I looked for any books on the subject that I could find lying around, and finally settled for just being direct. His reaction? “Eeeewww, that’s gross”.

And of course, once he had digested the basic facts, and thought for a moment, he added: “That must mean you and dad had sex…”

Ew.

Maybe I should have just gone with “It’s in the ring”.