Having 'the talk' with your children can often be awkward, especially if their questions are sprung on you when you're not quite ready for them.
Expectant mum Giovanna Fletcher was recently surprised when one of her sons started asking about the birds and the bees.
The author, who's married to Tom Fletcher of McFly, is mum to four-year-old Buzz and two-year-old Buddy. One of her little boys asked her how she got pregnant, and the 33-year-old tried to navigate the situation as best she could.
"‘So mummy, how’d the baby get IN your tummy?’ Oh gosh... I said something about Daddy putting a seed in there... he then went off in a world of his own about a button being pushed and the baby flying there. He was so adamant that I couldn’t correct him," she explained on Instagram.
"What have you told your little ones about how babies get in tummies?" the blogger asked her followers, "I feel I should’ve been more prepared for that one."
The comments on her post were filled with advice from different parents who'd found themselves caught out in the same situation. Many parents used variations of the simplified egg and/or seed explanation.
"I told my daughter that I got a seed from the doctors and swallowed it and then it grows into a baby," a mum shared.
"I find that an age-appropriate version of the truth is the best way," another recommended, "We told my son that mummy has an egg and daddy has a seed and they get put together. Then it takes lots of sleeps for the baby to get big enough to be out of mummy tummy."
"I said to my daughter all ladies have lots of tiny eggs and sometimes they start growing into a baby when a lady is old enough. Didn’t want to tell her anything incorrect. At three-and-a-half, she accepted that!" one person wrote.
There was another parent who admitted to employing diversion tactics:
"My son has suddenly become interested, very interested - he’s obsessed with learning about parts of the human body, so I’ve been distracting him by talking about lungs or kidneys instead!"
One mum said she decided to just tell her little one the whole truth.
"Be completely straight with them," she commented, "I found it much easier to tell them when they were younger as they are more accepting."
Our favourite answer may have been the joking line, "Ask your dad!"
How do you answer your young kids' questions about pregnancy?
