A Children’s Book Explaining Baby-Making? Here It Is
- Posted on March 12, 2012 at 1:51pm by
Liz Klimas
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It’s inevitable that parents will someday be asked “Where do babies come from?” and/or “Where did I come from?” by their children. And now, there‘s a children’s book to help answer the question. But the book isn’t that simple — and not everyone is applauding it. Why? Because, as the the book’s author Cory Silverberg describes, not everyone has a “nice story” of “mommy + daddy + intercourse = you!”
With that in mind, Silverberg is creating a new book – “What Makes a Baby?” – for parents to “[acknowledge] the help we get to bring children into our lives.” The book will include information about the help parents can get to make a baby: “a doctor, fertility clinic, adoption or foster agency; it might be a turkey baster and a friend; it might be a sperm donor or a surrogate.”
Watch Silverberg explain the onus for creating this book:
Silverberg states that the 32-page, hard cover book will be geared toward children of pre-school age up to 8 years old. Here’s more information about the book, which will be illustrated by Canadian artist Fiona Smyth:
[...] What Makes a Baby is written and illustrated to include all kinds of kids, all kinds of adults, and all kinds of families — regardless of how many people were involved, what the orientation, gender identity, or other make up of the family is, or how it came to be that way. It’s a social justice approach to sex education. Like all picture books, it’s meant to be read to a child and gives the adult reader the opportunity to fill in as much detail as they would like.
[...]
All children deserve stories that teach them not only about how they are unique, but also about what connects them to all other humans. What Makes a Baby tells that story without leaving some people out because of their gender, orientation, or family make up.
Silverberg‘s main goal is to make sure some families aren’t “left out” because traditional baby books don’t include non-traditional methods or parenting types, but there is criticism for the message the book could spread. Life Site News has more on those questioning this book’s potential influence:
“This poor man’s project is an amalgamation of the moral degeneration of the West,” said author, painter and cultural critic Michael O’Brien to LifeSiteNews. “It is really about having what we want without consequences—and feeling good about ourselves in the process.
“Based in a profound ignorance about human nature, and about what makes for a healthy family, it is the next stage in the self-destruction of the traditional family and healthy society that was once the foundation of Western civilization.”
[...]
Dr. Christine Schintgen, children’s author and assistant professor of literature at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay, Ontario told LifeSiteNews that she believes Silverberg’s project is “clearly an attempt at social engineering that is symptomatic of the Brave New World we now live in.”
“Instead of acknowledging the fundamental truth that sexual intercourse between a husband and wife is both the normal and the desired way to bring children into the world, this book will attempt to normalize morally problematic, and sometimes bizarre, forms of reproduction,” she said.
“Do we really want our children to grow up thinking that being the product of ‘a turkey baster and a friend’ is no different from being the fruit of a loving act of procreation between spouses?”
Financing for this book came through a non-traditional but increasingly popular means of funding. A site called Kickstarter, which has been used to fund endeavors such as “99% — The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film” and “FrackNation” –
“What Makes a Baby?” has reached more than 550 percent of its goal, according to a Kickstarter blog post. With that, the book will most definitely make it into production. The initial financial goal was to raise $9,500. At the time of this posting the site has helped raise more than $57,900.
With its financial goal met, the author has issued a new benchmark of pre-selling 2,000 books by March 16. At this point, the cost of the book will drop. The money no longer being spent on book production, according to the author’s post on the Kickstarter website, will go toward “increasing access to the book particularly for those who usually don’t have access to high quality, inclusive sex education.”
[H/T Blaze reader Karol O.]
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Comments (133)
spirited
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:38pmHow have humans manage to survive without this necessary information –well– before puberty?
Gone is the age of innocence…
>fools rush in.
Report Post »American_Hot_Dog
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:02pmAnother conservative who is anti-education. Predictable.
rot_soldier
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:16pm@American_Hot_Dog – No, I think he was making a point about how stupid this is. Do we really need education to tell us how babies are made. Does a dog need a 5 hour block of instruction on how to make a baby? No, so why do humans? People were doing mighty fine back in the dark ages when there wasn’t any education. As a matter of fact…. Krog the caveman was gettin’ it done without any training, too. Maybe the real question is: Is education really making us smarter?
Report Post »cja23
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 5:01pmFirst and second grade children do not need sex education, what they do need is lessons of respect and dignity towards women, which some New York Senators and deplorable fowl mouthed liberal comedians need desperately and should get a large dose of.
Report Post »HeidiLynnHagen
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 5:13pmAMERICAN_HOT_DOG- We conservatives are not against education, but rather are for age appropriate education. Besides, i feel that the “sex talk” or even the “where babies comes from talk” (which is kinda the same thing) should be done by the parents not by a school or an author. so should a four year old know about intercourse? no. in fact, if you ask me that is CHILD ABUSE.
Report Post »LydiaLydia
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 5:39pmAmerican_Hot_Dog there is a huge difference between education and leftist propaganda BEFORE THE AGE OF REASON and COMPREHENSION. The left are predators on the minds of children.
Report Post »hereandnow
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 6:48pmAwww…. How cute Silverberg… we’re so happy to know now how babies are made for every mixup of “acceptable parental structures”. Next, why don’t you follow-up with your next book, “How to destroy a baby” and include the multiple ways to abort a child… be sure to put some pretty pictures in there to make it all fuzzy and… “acceptable”.
Report Post »Onowicit
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 7:22pmInsulted Christians make the best advertisers, conservatives are the second best.
Report Post »mblue
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 8:40pmWe may all agree that some things are best taught at home by the parents, but the reality is most parents don’t want to have that talk…they avoid it like the plague. And those that so aren’t always prepared to answer the questions some kids have and get flustered and embarrassed leaving the kid even more curious. If parents “did their jobs”, the schools wouldn’t have had to start teaching this in the first place.
Report Post »jzs
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 9:44pmThe first you should tell kids is that a stork brought them. Whatever you do, don’t tell them they came from their Mommy. That’s much too confusing.
Report Post »valarie
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 11:29pmSpirited, so true. It is so sad that liberals insist on pouring feces on every decent, loving, thing in the world. Mommy and Daddy made you because they wanted you, would have sufficed.
Report Post »ghostsouls
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 12:05am@American_Hot_Dog and there is the liberal who has none. Too much of anything is not good. There is a limit.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 12:53amMy five year old daughter asked me where babies come from because she thought that she might like one.
When I told her that they come from mummy’s tummy, she didn’t believe me. So I decided to leave out how they got in there.
Little talk postponed. Well, for the time being, anyway.
Report Post »McSorley
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 1:29am@American_Hot_Dog
Another liberal who thinks *ANY* lame response is a good one. Predictable. ^^
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 6:26amWow 50+ yrs and 3 Grandchildren and what it wasn’t a stork ?
Report Post »Are you kidding me ?
Leslie Anne
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:36pmOnce upon a time….babies come from the stork. The End.
Report Post »lilium479
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:32pmYou are a HOT DOG, but not an American one.
Report Post »Fantastic Four
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:52pmMaybe American hot dog likes Franks & Beans
Report Post »formidable_foe
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 5:06pmHey guys, American Hot Dog is right…. think how much better our childhoods would have been if the lazy, selfish, inconsiderate liars we had for parents would have forgone the whole “Santa Claus” fiasco. I really wish mine had told me the truth about everything from day one.
Report Post »TooManyRedneckConservatives
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 5:41pmActually, I really do hate that whole Santa Claus lie. I always felt like it was used as some kind of carrot held over my head, like “If you are not good, Santa won’t come”. Then u find out it was your parents the whole time. I agree that little kids shouldn’t have harsh realities thrown at them at such a young age, but must we make up blatant lies and nonsense, and then tell them when they are older that we lied to them for years? Even as a kid, I always felt like adults were so hypocritical. They can lie, but I can’t. They can curse, but I can’t. If you are going to teach or preach to anyone, live by example.
Report Post »US-First
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 6:22pmTOOMANYREDNECKCONSERVATIVES…. your confusing lying with adults participating in childhood make believe and fantasy. Children initially develop in the make believe and having their parents participate in some aspects is both healthy for the child and for the parent. Do you not pretend with your child when S\he makes believe they are a super hero? How about pretending how fantastic their art work is? Parents bring the child out of make believe on various topics at different times since no child is the same. Some events help precipitate reality. And some children become self aware about reality in a particular area usually due to trail and error or accidents. Culturally Santa Clause has been a pretend part of Christmas for family’s in the USA for many generations. I think it is dis-ingeniousness to attack that tradition just because you feel differently. I believe you are just hoping on the current attack Christians bandwagon so popular in the current media.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 6:54pmAmerican are you for real? Get off your freaking high-horse. Children’s education should be left up too the parents. Whether you have sex naturally or artificially it still takes an egg from a female and a sperm from a male. How you get there is irrelevant. When two males or two women can naturally have sex and produce a baby, then we will talk. However, I don‘t even think in Darwin’s tricks could that happen.
Not every family has gay partners, so why would I tell my child about two gay people not being able to make a baby naturally and they have to go buy one. Why would I tell my child mommy had to go find a sperm donor because daddy is shooting blanks or mommy didn’t want you to have a daddy, so we don’t know who your real daddy is? He was a shot in the dark.
When Liberals think they know better, they cause more problems. Just look what Obama’s done.
Report Post »OklahomaBound
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 11:24pmConservatives came from God and monkeys evolved FROM libt@rds who still exist as a primordial ooze for more monkeys , the end.
Report Post »bement14
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:25pmYou are going to try and teach a 4 year old about IVF? I’m sure that will go over real well. This is why children are so poorly adjusted today.
Report Post »Leslie Anne
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:31pme
Report Post »Leslie Anne
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:33pmOnce upon a time…
Report Post »Babies come from the stork.
The End.
Barbarian
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:17pm…well, Little Mishka, we bought you from an international baby smuggling ring, who stole you from a homeless egg walking along Turkey Baster Ave in Trannysylvania, why do you ask?
Report Post »airportengineer
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:12pmWho wants some gay guy explaining this to their Preschooler? NOT I, PERIOD!
Report Post »mrqstixx
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:29pmGreat point!
Report Post »mrqstixx
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:37pmGood point!
Report Post »Infidel49
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:08pmHow about letting the mother and father teacher their children where babies come from? Most people don’t want their children learning about the freaks and the bees.
Report Post »mrqstixx
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:30pmAnother great point!
Report Post »auntbea
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 5:39pmO Mommy, I thought I came from Indiana!
Report Post »Mr.Fitnah
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:05pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-lia-FEIY
Report Post »Minonkman
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:05pmIt stills takes a family to raise one, and that is a man and a women. We are not dogs and cats.
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:04pmSo us poor pathetic clueless parents need this guy to instruct us on educating our children? uuhhgg!
Report Post »Obama Nation
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:50pmSheriff Joe on Obama Investigation: Worse Than Watergate; Biggest Media Blackout in History
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/03/sheriff-joe-on-obama-investigation.html
Report Post »youdidthis
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:18pmpeople dont care .
is sad ,but true. for 3years we have yelled.
some refuse to believe because would ruin their view of the govt.
some just watch msm and do not know.
some know and are pushing the agenda,distorting the nbc.
some will never wake up, permanent sleepers,victims.
keep pushing the truth.
Report Post »Libertyrevolutionary
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:41pmYou see, one man takes his bare viagra enhanced penis and sticks it into another man’s…………oh wait, wrong liberal book. Sorry.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:32pmWhen a sperm meets an egg, life is born, and three months later a doctor sucks the parasite from the womans womb so she isn’t punished with a baby.
Liberal Sex Ed.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:46pmThe Black Gospel: Oil is Dirty; Coal is Dirty; Smoke is Dirty; Babies are Dirty…
Report Post »USACommoner
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:01pmSad but true…and it doesn’t have to be only 3 months. It can be 8 or 9 months, too. It’s never too late.
Report Post »HumbleCitizen
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:48pmAnd now this administration is pushing for “post-birth abortions” up to age two because they’re really not “persons” yet.
Report Post »leonardoverse
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 3:48pmShaka……when the walls fell.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:31pmWhy did they omit the picture of Mitch Miller eating a banana?
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:42pmThat’s in the Instructions for making Movies!
Report Post »Locked
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:29pm“This poor man’s project is an amalgamation of the moral degeneration of the West”
I feel like this is what radical Islamic clerics tend to say…
“Do we really want our children to grow up thinking that being the product of ‘a turkey baster and a friend’ is no different from being the fruit of a loving act of procreation between spouses?”
I understand the sentiment here, but they might want to work on presentation. Declaring that there’s a fundamental difference; not between the process of raising a child, but their origin; is really a terrible thing to say to any child. If procreation puts some kids above others, then the same argument can be made that adopted kids or those born to single-parent families are inferior as well.
Again, I get their point, but whoever writes their reactions needs to work on their presentation a bit.
Report Post »spairhair
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:26pmPumpkin patch works for me!!!!
Report Post »TooManyRedneckConservatives
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:26pmBut what about all of the children that are born via alternative means? There are so many kids that are adopted, surrogate, in vitro, implantation, etc. Maybe the book would be better for older kids, but what about teaching kids that there are different ways to have a baby? Or do you wait till he/she is in her 30‘s and can’t get pregnant on their own to learn that lesson? I mean, the reality is that many people these days DO rely upon alternative means to get pregnant, especially as we wait longer and longer to start families.
Report Post »mastice
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:43pmGood questions, but I am going to stress the point I made to Steelhead below… this book is intended, or targeting, children from the age of 4-8 years of age. (that is the general ‘preschooler’, 4 years old)
This subject material, in my opinion and the opinion of many parents, is entirely inappropriate at that age. Kids need to be kids. At that age they should only be concerned with ABC or 123 or ‘barbie’ or ‘hot wheels’ if you get my drift. Not the varied ways of reproduction or where babies come from.
Report Post »rocketwrangler
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:03pmIf you are in your thirties and haven’t figured out how to make a baby, maybe I’ll draw you a picture. If you are an 8 year old and HAVE figured out how to make a baby, then SHAME ON YOUR PARENTS.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:15pmMore liberal claptrap.They want to destroy families and sexualize children at an early age. They are tearing down our society and we are letting them.
Report Post »Blackhawk1
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 3:29pmLiberals are trying to justify giving out “FREE” birth control. The more they indoctrinate kids and get them to be sexually active the more justification for their socialist programs.
Report Post »deeberj
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:14pm” It’s a social justice approach to sex education.”
Give me a break. It’s a brainwashing book for progressive ideas.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:13pmPreSchool to 8 Years Old? Is this the Target Age Group for Sex and Education?
Report Post »Paul
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:09pmI feel sorry for all our kids in this time…
Report Post »Steelhead
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:07pmhey Liz- education is good
Report Post »mastice
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:21pmYou are right, education is good. But don’t you think the nature of the information presented to the intended group (preschoolers through 8 year old kids) is a little bit too mature for their little minds to perceive properly? (Turkey baster and a friend? Sperm donor?)
Those are not things kids need to be concerned about at the age of 4-8 years of age. Kids should be concerned with ‘barbie’ or ‘hot wheels’ or whatever kids at that age today are into. Not sperm donors and turkey basters.
And people wonder why ‘kids’ are having sex younger and younger these days. I’m not saying that we keep our kids naive to the ways of life or the world. But you can’t tell me that when we introduce them to things like this, at that age, that it doesn‘t have an impact on how soon they start to ’experiment’ with sexual activity.
Report Post »Capitalist Mama
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:37pmMy 4 year old is very interested in where babies come from.
We tell her that Mommy and Daddy prayed to God, and He knitted her together in Mommy’s tummy. Now that we are adopting, she wants to know how we can have a baby that isn‘t in Mommy’s tummy. We told her that another Mommy was going to help us grow the baby in her tummy just for our family.
Total, scientific story? No. But good enough for a 4 year old. No reason for sperm & egg conversations until a little later.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:41pmIt is Not that Education is Good… It is that Knowledge is Good… but there is a Time & Place for Everything, relative to the individual, and Knowledge should be acquired, age & comprehension relative to the individual… where Guardian & Prime Teacher is the Parent, and they should decide.
Report Post »mastice
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:52pm@Capitalist Mama
Very well said, I know kids will ask the question (mine are not that old yet but getting there soon) but I think it needs to be presented in a tactful way like you did. There is nothing wrong with a fairy tale or spiritual approach to it. Kids will learn when they get older.
I just think it‘s entirely too mature to get into the specific ’nuts-n-bolts’ (no pun intended) of where babies come from with a 4 year old child. There is absolutely no reason why they should be told that maybe their ‘mamma and one of her friends/co-workers/random internet buddies got together one night and used a turkey baster filled with sperm to make a baby.’
Report Post »Freedom Keeper
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:05pmOur world…I don’t even recognize it anymore. There‘s no way I’d ever let my children read this. It’s despicable! I’m too young to have kids yet anyway, plus I’m not married but for the sake of society, I’m giving my kids the “mommy+daddy+intercourse=you” story, when they’re old enough.
Report Post »Capitalist Mama
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:38pmKey point: “when they are old enough”
Report Post »IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:04pmHis main goal is – money. Don’t know how my parents ever had and raised me without his book. However, I did learn ok from my parents without it and so did my sisters and brothers..
Report Post »Charybdis
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:03pm“Hey kid! Good thing your momma was a turkey-baster gal instead of a suction-vacuum one!”
Report Post »IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 2:19pmGood response!!!
Report Post »sawbuck
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 1:55pmNo Thanks…I will keep my stork story.
Report Post »