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Where did that Baby come from?

We have a beautiful addition to our neighbourhood gang — a new baby! In trying to explain to Max, who is 4, that his friend has a new baby sister, some questions arose. Yes, *those* kind of questions.

Stella, our 10-year-old daughter, immediately jumped right into this and offered that he could borrow her book It’s NOT the Stork. “Um, I’m not sure Max is ready for that book,” I blurted out.

You see, Stella is like a walking encyclopedia. Every since she could talk, she would ask you a question and then proceed to ask 10,000 more detailed questions on that same topic. Her brain likes to know EVERYTHING. I’ve heard people say that if a child asks the question, then they’re ready for the answer. And we followed this with Stella. However, it didn’t take long for my knowledge of anatomy to come up short and thus, the purchase of It’s NOT the Stork. She couldn’t even read yet, but I needed that book to help me answer her questions.

Later, when she could read, we shared some exciting news — that she would have a baby sister or brother. During that time, I distinctly recall finding her asleep with the pages of that book splayed open … she’d been studying-up on this baby business.

It’s a good book. I have recommended it to friends and I’m happy to recommend it here too.

Picture of It's not the stork book

Okay … so, back to the original conversation with Max. When Stella named the book, Hubby chuckled and said, “That’s was the same book my parents shared with me when I was a kid!” (It wasn’t. The above book was published in 2006.)

I immediately knew which book he was referring to. And you probably remember it too …

This one: Where Did I Come From?

Image of book "Where did I come from?"

Published in 1973, this book is a bit of an icon for anyone of my vintage. If you haven’t read this book, I can tell you that its approach was, well, interesting. Let’s just say it included cartoon sperms with top-hats.

Hubby wanted to relive this bit of childhood memory I guess, so he googled it up in his new handy-dandy iPad. However, instead of landing on the book, he landed on a video. Which he proceeded to play — right there and then — with the kids running over to watch the screen too.

The video version of Where Did I Come From? takes the somewhat quirky but cute approach to sex ed found in the book and moves it right into the realm of the strange and awkward!

First of all: it’s narrated by Howie Mandel, a well-known Canadian comedian who, because of an irrational fear of germs (mysophobia), wears latex gloves if he has to shake someone’s hand. That, in and of itself, makes the adult watcher distracted.

Then, while the parents are splashing about in a bubble bath, the video pans to each body part of the parent while a rubber ducky takes a long hard stare at each part. Yes, there is a rubber ducky sitting at eye level in the water doing a long hard stare at the man’s penis. We couldn’t help but all laugh (or at least the three of us, Max might have been quiet and permanently disturbed by it) … it was just so bizarre!

Duck from video Where Do I Come From?

However, what REALLY set me off was taking a look at the video version’s parent characters. I’m not sure I should even admit this out loud. But those parents? They’re kind of a dorky version of a middle-aged couple. And well … they look remarkably like Hubby and I.

 Parents from Where Do I Come From? video

We stopped the video shortly after that point, on the pretense that it was “too much information” for Max right now. But really, I don’t ever plan to watch the whole thing unless I get a memo telling me they’ve made some dramatic changes to the way the parent characters look! They are far more disturbing to my psyche than Howdie Mandel.

Comments

  1. hmm.. you do have that curly hair now, Julie! …. but you are much cuter!

    and have you looked at your hubby lately?

    thanks for the chuckle…may have to check that video out for myself!

  2. Here’s a bit of trivia that I always find amusing, Peter Mayle, the author of “Where Did I Come From?” also wrote “A Year in Provence”.  Go figure!

  3. Pam @writewrds says:

    Hilarious! : D

  4. Super geschrieben.Vielen Dank.

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