Pet Idea Straight From PBS Kids and Kindergarten

What happens when your child's Kindergarten class spends the week learning about bats, and then PBS Kids runs a cartoon show about how cool real bats are?  Bats become reinforced as the must have pet choice.


My 5 yr old's Kindergarten class did spend a whole week talking all about bats. Every day we got new and detailed information about all the different types of bats and how cool they are.  Then, PBS Kids' Wild Kratts ran a cartoon show about brown bats. Nifty.

Now, it has been thoroughly reinforced that bats are awesome and we must have one. Now. As a pet.

My 5 yr old:
"We need to get a brown bat as a pet. Call Petsmart and see if they have any. If they don't they will call you when they get some in. Then, they will tell you which ones are diseased and which ones are not. Let's get one without disease. They will tell us to keep it inside so it wont get a fungus from outside. By the way, what color  is bat fungus? I want to know so I can avoid it when I go outside. Yeah. Bats are cool."

Wow. Just. Really. Wow.
Bats, huh?
From Petsmart, apparently.

We Don't Have Cable, So Why Am I Facing a Birds and the Bees Talk with My 5 Yr Old

Or, Why I Am Thankful To Parents Magazine

A while back, I read an article about how to have the "birds and the bees" talk with your child. It broke the sex talk and how to handle it into age appropriate sections. I remember being slightly horrified that I would have to have this talk 3 times. I was also immensely glad that I would not have to have this talk for a very, very long time. I had time to prepare. Nevertheless, I read the article and tried to remember it.

Boy, Howdy am I glad!  

The other day I was really busy doing housework. I left the kids in the living room with PBS cartoons and went about my chores.  At the end of the afternoon, I sat down with the kids to look at books and such with them.  

My 5-yr old, out of the blue, starts asking me all these questions about Sperms and what do I know about them. I start to sweat bullets. I ask her what does she mean. She says, "You know! Those swimming things. Sperms."  Calmly, I am trying to have a non-reaction and am skimming my memory for that article about the talk. I am wondering what information to give her.  

We try to be direct and calm with our kids. They call their parts by the technical terms. They don't giggle or smirk. It is what it is. We are just calmly straight forward. But, even so, this is heavy stuff for a 5 yr old. Even one that reads on a fifth grade level.  

Suddenly! I remember the article said to answer a question like this of a young child with other questions to see what they know and exactly what they are asking. I remember there was an example of a school-aged child asking about sex, but meaning Male or Female on a form from school... SO, I ask a question or two.

And laugh sooo very hard with relief.

The Wild Kratts Animal Show on PBS Kids had featured SPERM WHALES that day. 

OF COURSE! And, Duh.  Lesson learned about being too busy dusting and vacuuming to pay attention to my kids' shows. Even if they are PBS, Public Access.