Respect the milk!

After bringing Henry home, I was spotted feeding him by the boys. Yes they were around when I fed Kinsley, but they were 2 years younger and things didn't click like they do now.  I'll add here that I am aware that they walk around in the house so I try to be semi modest when I feed him. I don't use a nursing cover, but I do try to keep exposure to a minimum. Anyway, upon seeing what was going on each of them froze and stammered before I told them to go back to their business and let me feed the baby. I told Henry about this and we decided that we should have a discussion with them to explain what was going on and why and how they should respond to it. Keep in mind that they are 8 & 6 year old boys so we kept it simple. We explained to them that girls and boys are different and that girls have private parts on the top as well as the bottom. We also explained that when a girl has a baby, she produces milk to feed the baby/babies because we are mammals like dogs and cats and cows... we tried to relate it to something that they already understood. The light began to come on. We told them that they were each fed like that and that there is nothing wrong with it and that we just wanted them to understand. That being said, we told them that it was not something that they needed to discuss at school or with their friends, it was just for their understanding. Henry also drilled into them that though it was ok for them to walk by, they should respect what was going on and not stare or freak out because it was sort of a private thing. That was the end of it.

Fast forward a week and I came into the kitchen with milk that I had pumped. Colin was standing there and asked what I had. I told him that I had milk I had gotten out for the baby. I didn't say how I got it out as we won't go there now. The look on his face was priceless as he stared at the bottles. He never said anything, but I could tell what he was thinking. It was kind of like the look Kinsley gave when she saw the baby, "I didn't think it was going to be a real baby". Colin's look clearly said "I didn't think it was real milk". He looked stunned as he walked away and I giggled to myself as he processed this truth. Though I find discussions about this sort of thing a little awkward sometimes, I'm glad that we are honest with the kids and explain things to them in a way that they can understand. I'd rather them hear the edited truth from us than a full blown or exaggerated version from someone else. I hope that we can keep this door of communication open as they get older and have questions about things. These preliminary conversations give me hope about the whole birds and bees conversation that will come later. It's nice to have warm up conversations to that. ~Kellie~