One afternoon, a little boy was sitting with his father in the living room, looking unusually serious.

After a few minutes of thinking, he finally asked, “Dad, can I ask you something?”

His father lowered the newspaper. “Sure, buddy. What is it?”

The boy said, “I know babies come from mommies’ tummies…”

The father immediately froze.

The boy continued, “But how do they get there in the first place?”

His father blinked, cleared his throat, and suddenly wished he had gone outside to mow the lawn.

“Well,” he began, “you see… when two people love each other very much…”

Then he stopped.

He tried again.

“There’s, uh… a special kind of… grown-up situation…”

The boy stared at him.

The father scratched his head, looked at the ceiling, looked at the floor, and mumbled, “It’s complicated. There are… cells… and nature… and, you know… science.”

The boy waited patiently, but the more his father talked, the less confident he sounded.

Finally, the child sighed, shook his head, and interrupted him.

“Dad, you don’t have to make something up.”

His father looked relieved and embarrassed at the same time.

The boy added:

“It’s okay if you don’t know the answer.”