“Dad, What’s a condom?” my fifth-grade son asked me on Thursday night, as he took out his homework.
A pregnant pause on my end, and then I respond all chirpy and innocent: “Why do you ask?”
I didn’t mean to deflect the question, but I was wondering what prompted it. If he was ready to go there, so was I. I briefly explained the nuts and bolts of sex and sperm and eggs and the role of condoms. Though I’m sure I lost him somewhere in the middle of all that, he seemed quite eager to move on to another subject. But why did he ask?
“Because it was a word in my word study at school.”
“No, it wasn’t,” I blurted out.
“Yes, it was”
“Let me see it.”
Hence the photo at the top of this article.
Eric Messinger is the editor of New York Family. He can be reached at [email protected].
