The other day I was with Huck’s class at the Museum of Natural History learning more than I needed to know about bears.  After teaching us the difference between black and brown bears, the young guy led the group to a diorama of grizzlies and pointed out the overprotective mother bear with her cubs.  Turns out Papa bear will kill the cubs if it means a chance to mate with Mama. The other parent volunteer and I looked at each other with a gasp and quickly moved the children onto to the next section.  Hours later at the dinner table Huck asked me what “mates” means and I told him very straightforwardly that it means to make babies.  Then he added, “Like by kissing?”  Having never rehearsed this answer I said something like, “Yes.  The male and female get together and do their magic and then babies can be born.”  After a very dramatic moment of silence and a somewhat smirky look on Troy’s face Huck asked, “What’s the magic they do?”  I quickly said, “We’ll talk about that when you’re older,” and by some glorious miracle of Heaven he stopped asking questions and went back to eating dinner.

It’s not easy being a mother.