How To Tell Your Kids that Mommy is a Love Child

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:43:00 GMT

How do you explain to your children that they won’t be meeting Grandpa since Mommy is the love child that resulted from a few too many Jagermeister shots one Saturday night in college?

Slate’s Dear Prudence column recently tackled a (slightly more tasteful) variation of this question. “Dadless Mom” wrote in wondering how to respond to her five-year-old’s question, “Who’s your dad?” She was wary of giving her son more information than he could handle, but at the same time she wanted to avoid creating the same aura of secrecy that surrounded her own quandaries about her father when she was a little girl.

Prudence masterfully answered this question with a gentle, “What’s the big deal?” With the wisdom of distance--and of a marketable knack for offering good advice--Prudence suggested that the child’s query is probably not nearly as loaded as “Dadless Mom” seems to believe. He’s probably just curious, and requires only a quick, but truthful, response.

In other words, if you’re relaxed about the fatherhood question—and other sticky subjects—chances are, your kids will be, too.

Photo: canada.com

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How To Tell Your Kids that Mommy is a Love Child