And then there’s the Doodles, who’s no longer a bug in any way shape or form. The questions are nonstop. And they’re getting tougher. Keeping in mind the advice of a fellow preschool mother, who told me that when kids ask about where babies come from, they’re often asking something else (like “Where was I born” or “Are babies born in hospitals”), we’ve been reading How Are Babies Made, which I think is both informative and age appropriate. Just enough details, but not overly specific (“The baby squeezes out of the opening between the mother’s legs”). So I guess no one reading this will be surprised when I tell you that he looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked, “But how does the sperm get from the daddy to inside the mommy?” After I stopped laughing hysterically, I went back to the old tried and true “special naked hug” and for the moment, it appeased him.
Then there are the religion questions. I wish I could remember how this topic came up–I think it started with one of his pronouncements that when he grows up he wants to be a daddy and also various discussions about who is and who isn’t Jewish–but somehow, we ended up here:
Doodles: What if I marry a Santa person [Doodles’s own term for a gentile].
Me: What if you do?
Doodles: Will my children be Jewish?
Me: If you and your wife want to raise your children as Santa children, then you will. If you and your wife want your children to be Jewish, they can be converted and become Jewish. [Note: Judaism is a matrilineal religion.]
Doodles: They can be Jewish?
Me: If you and your wife both decide on it.
Doodles: How do they get converted?
Me: Well, a rabbi would perform a ceremony and they’d become Jewish?
Doodles: How will I find a rabbi?
Me: I’m sure you’ll know some rabbi who you can ask.
Doodles [slight panic in his voice]: But what if I don’t?
Me: Well, you can always the rabbis you have now, Rabbi L. or Rabbi J.
Doodles: Oh. Okay.
So there you have it. Doodles will get married. He will have a special naked hug. And he will find a rabbi. And all is well in the world. Until his next question….
