Children are inquisitive. It’s one of the many wonderful things about them—especially just how unfiltered their inquisitiveness is! No area of life goes unquestioned.
Unless things are explained to them very early on, they will get to a point where they’re seriously intrigued by the facts of life.
It’s important to talk to your child about where they’ve come from, and there’s evidence that it’s even more critical for children conceived via donation.
Donor families know the importance of sharing this information early on. Yet there’s no reason why this conversation should be any more complicated for a donor-conceived child than for any other child.
As a parent who used a donor egg, donor sperm or both, you are more likely than anyone else to have considered your responses to their potential myriad of questions, and even more likely to have discussed these concepts with your child from the very start!
Rather than having a big sit down conversation, it is better to weave your stories into every day life from an early age, reducing the stress for you both, and ensuring you remain just as close as ever.
And if you need a little help to keep the conversation going, I highly recommend these 5 books that gently teach donor-conceived children all about where they’ve come from.
Enjoy!
1) Hattie Peck – Written and Illustrated by Emma Levey
Hattie is a plucky hen who’s only ever laid a single egg—and that egg sadly didn’t hatch.
She decides to embark on a great adventure to find some eggs that will hatch so she can finally become a mummy—just like she’s always dreamed of.
Hattie Peck is a sweetly illustrated tale of triumph in the face of adversity makes the perfect bedtime story for a 4-year-old’s bedtime, and nimbly introduces the idea of ‘hatching’ a kind friend’s or stranger’s eggs to become a mother yourself.
Click here to buy Hattie Peck
2) The Extra Button by Jules Blundell
A gingerbread couple by the names of Benny and Rose are desperate to start a family, but they are struggling to make a longed for baby.
They enlist the help of a third gingerbread person, and finally have the baby they’d always dreamed of.
The Extra Button is a cute little story complete with adorable illustrations and a heartwarming ending.
This story really helps young children get to grips with the idea of donor conception from a male and female couple’s perspective.
Click here to buy The Extra Button
3) It Takes Love (and Some Other Stuff) to Make a Baby by L. L. Bird
This cheery book introduces little readers to such words as uterus, ovaries, testicles, sperm, egg, donor, and pregnant.
L. L. Bird skilfully explains what all these new terms mean, and where they fit in the description of where babies come from in families with two mums.
It Takes Love (and Some Other Stuff) to Make a Baby has the additional benefit of introducing children (all children, donor-conceived or otherwise) to the idea that families can take on endless forms.
Those families with two parents might be opposite-sex or same-sex—and that both are just as good as one another.
4) The Dancing Fish and the Clever Crab by Ms. Reen
The Dancing Fish and the Clever Crab can’t wait to start a family.
When they run into some problems, one of their fellow marine animals is only too happy to step in and help them get things underway.
The Dancing Fish and the Clever Crab is a truly joyous little read, with fun illustrations accompanying easy-to-understand language outlining the concept of pregnancy via egg or sperm donation.
Click here to buy The Dancing Fish and the Clever Crab
5) Wish by Matthew Cordell
When a lovely elephant couple decide it’s time to have a baby, some unexpected challenges arise.
It looks like they might not be able to start a family after all, until help arrives from a most unlikely source to grant them their greatest wish.
With softly hued watercolours, Wish is a gentle introduction to donor conception, adoption or IVF conception for 3–5-year-olds.
Explaining in simple language how some parents need that extra little help when it comes to having a child
It is not clear in the book how the little elephant came to be, so it is helpful for all families who struggled and struggled before their long held wish for a child came true.
Although they wear blue and pink scarves, the gender identification of the little elephant’s parents is gentle.
Click here to buy Wish
You might also be in interested in 5 Delightful Children’s Books About Donor Siblings.
