DEAR ABBY: The letter in your column about a father explaining "the birds and the bees" to his 7-year-old son brought back the memory of my experience with my 6-year-old son.
I sat him in front of the television to watch a program on human reproduction. After the show, he told me that he understood everything except how the male seed got to the female egg. I said he was too young to know, and I would tell him when he was a teen-ager. He threw up his hands and said by that time, he would have forgotten the question.
After some pleading and a solemn promise not to tell his mother where he'd gotten his information, I told him. He stared at the wall for about 20 seconds, turned, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "Dad, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard." -- R.W., RAYMOND, N.H.
DEAR R.W.: I'm sure his opinion changed once his testosterone kicked in. Read on for a story that approaches the subject from a different angle:
DEAR ABBY: The letters about children learning the facts of life reminded me of this old story:
A country doctor went to deliver a baby. The expectant mother's 5-year-old son was with her and the delivery was imminent.
The house had no electricity, so the doctor brought out his lantern. He instructed the little fellow to hold the lantern while he delivered the baby. After the baby was born, the doctor spanked it and it began to cry.
Turning to the little boy, the doctor asked, "Well, son, what do you think of your baby brother?" "Hit him again," the boy replied. "He ought not to have climbed up there in the first place." -- ROWENA IN KANSAS CITY, KAN.