DEAR ABBY: The letters about children's reactions to how babies are made reminded me of my son's reaction when he was 4. I was a single mother in college at the time. He enjoyed looking at my biology books while I studied. One day he saw a picture of fertilization, so upon his request I explained how babies get started using the pictures in the biology book.
He looked me right in the eye and asked how the daddy cell got in the momma in the first place. Cool as a cucumber, I asked him how he thought it got there. He thought for a moment, then told me his version that so touched my heart that I became misty:
Babies get started in the daddy's heart. The daddy looks at the mommy with a special kind of love. He takes her hand, and the sperm leaves the daddy's heart, goes through his wedding ring while he is holding his wife's hand, to her heart, where it stays to soak up their love a little while, then travels to her uterus, where it starts to grow. And this is how babies are made! I thought it was one of the sweetest things I have ever heard. -- ALY IN EDMONDS, WASH.
DEAR ALY: I agree. And if you think about the symbolism -- he wasn't really so far wrong. (On the other hand, it makes one realize how important a thorough sex education is for young people.)