“How does the sperm meet the egg?”

I’ve guided thousands of parents on how to explain where babies come from without ever saying the word sex and this is by far the question most parents of 4 year-olds ask me, “What do I say when my 4 year-old asks, ‘How does the sperm and egg meet?’”

Let me set the scene - here’s how we got here:

Your 4 year-old asked you, “Where do babies come from?”

You being prepared (because you already downloaded the Top Talks Starter Pack 😉) immediately praise their question and dive into explaining that everything is made up of cells and the 2 cells that are needed in order to make a baby are a sperm cell and an egg cell.

Then you stop! You stopped talking but this was the moment where you should’ve kept going straight into one of the 11 topics I recommend to explain in Layer 1 of the Where do Babies Come From Talk. Let me explain why⬇️

When you stopped talking after saying, a sperm cell and an egg cell, your pause gave your kid time to ask another question. In their child brain they’re going to pick one of the 6 question words for their follow up question. You tell me, which word makes the most sense?

• Who does the sperm meet the egg?

• What does the sperm meet the egg?

• When does the sperm meet the egg?

• Where does the sperm meet the egg?

• Why does the sperm meet the egg?

• How does the sperm meet the egg?

The logical next question they’ll ask, when you stop leading the Where do Babies Come From Talk after introducing them to the words sperm cell and egg cell is: How does the sperm cell meet the egg cell? They genuinely have no other reference point or ideas to continue the conversation - so they’ll just ask this question as it’s the most natural question to ask next!

So here’s what you’re going to do! Instead of stopping after you explain the sperm cell and egg cell, you’re going to lead the talk! Take a look at these examples of how to do that: