When I was around 8, I asked my father "what's a lesbian?" He said, "you know how your mom and I love each other? It's like that, but two women." It's really not that hard to explain things to kids.
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i feel like people who say its hard feel like theres something that has to come after, something to the effect of "but that's not normal, since two women cant make babies, and this is how babies are made..." but, you really dont need to go that far.
aug 25, 2025, 5:06 pm • 1 0 • view
I didn't know what a lesbian was until an adult called me that. When I was 12.
aug 26, 2025, 5:42 am • 0 0 • view
Yep. We had the same conversation with our kids when they were little. They didn't bat an eye.
aug 25, 2025, 1:59 pm • 1 0 • view
AAAAhahaha! Finally! My thoughts are like your father's - just explain it in simple terms. Kids smell BS a mile away. (I am still chuckling)
aug 26, 2025, 12:46 am • 1 0 • view
pretty sure that's how my mom explained her gay coworker to me too. it was a pretty easy concept to grasp at around that age, imagine that
aug 25, 2025, 9:46 pm • 0 0 • view
Someone should let Snoop Dogg know. He seems to be struggling with the concept.
aug 25, 2025, 12:35 pm • 3 0 • view
what did snoop dog say?
aug 25, 2025, 4:32 pm • 1 0 • view
nvm I read it...lol, what a little baby
aug 25, 2025, 4:39 pm • 2 0 • view
My friends and I worked it out together. My one friend--not a lesbian as it turned out--was explaining it and essentially conveyed the idea it was love, beautiful, and not wrong. Guess how SHE realized this? From pictures in a Playboy Magazine she found...which is just very funny to me now.
aug 25, 2025, 8:00 pm • 4 0 • view
So instead of "LGBTQ education is porn" it's actually "porn is LGBTQ education"? 😅
aug 25, 2025, 8:03 pm • 4 1 • view
Seems so! I am still impressed by her. She guided us all the way through her own reasoning process. Like 'Hmmm. Is this BAD? No. Why would it be?' No adults talked about sex to us. Her point of view was healthy and relaxed and we knew SO little about sex--but were all slightly afraid of the topic.
aug 25, 2025, 8:08 pm • 4 0 • view
Funny enough, I have a memory of my mom explaining the gay subtext of Dracula when I was around that age and getting the gist of it more or less, so presumably I got the info by osmosis or something at some prior point
aug 25, 2025, 8:43 pm • 1 0 • view
Even my sort of homophobic dad was able to explain shit this easily
aug 25, 2025, 1:12 pm • 0 0 • view
As for the "How do they have a kid?" question, you can answer it with: "Not really any of our business, but there are several ways a couple that can't conceive can have custody of a child."
aug 25, 2025, 4:07 am • 37 0 • view
Young kids usually don't have a conception of babies that requires a cis man and cis woman, right? My conception was like "parents are in love, they want a baby, mommy has the baby at the hospital." If a kid is old enough to know about sperm, you can explain adoption and artificial insemination
aug 25, 2025, 4:16 am • 43 1 • view
Like, my conception of the mechanics of sex and sperm in the baby making process came a bit later
aug 25, 2025, 4:16 am • 26 0 • view
One would think! But I assumed this was in response to Snoop's boneheaded comment and he mentioned worrying about the kid asking that, so shrug.
aug 25, 2025, 4:20 am • 6 0 • view
"Not really any of our business" is a rather strange reply. as if it was through black magic or unknown to (the rest of) us. just list a few ways you know of instead. no need at all to dramatize it
aug 25, 2025, 1:33 pm • 0 0 • view
It's not about drama, it's about respecting other people's privacy. How they had their kid is their business and they can share it if they want to, but it's rude to pry into a stranger's reproductive history.
aug 25, 2025, 7:41 pm • 2 0 • view
I mean these are fictional characters, but I'm saying it's an opportunity to set that boundary with your children if they haven't already learned it.
aug 25, 2025, 7:45 pm • 1 0 • view
lol when I told my kid @ 10ish about how babies were made she was so grossed out and then sad she’d never have kids because she’s certainly never doing THAT so then I explained artificial insemination and IVF and she was like “thank GOD someone thought of a better way!”
aug 25, 2025, 1:54 pm • 10 2 • view
I'd always been taught that babies come out of moms, but was never told how. I remember running to my parents, really excited, because I definitely figured out where babies come out of. They nervously asked "where?" I shouted proudly, "THE BELLYBUTTON" 😂
aug 25, 2025, 6:24 am • 7 1 • view
And that was when I was 1 or 2 (parents were still together so definitely no later). That was my point, some kids do know that "babies come out of moms" or something similar
aug 25, 2025, 6:25 am • 3 0 • view
If a mommy and a mommy love each other very much...
aug 25, 2025, 8:17 am • 1 0 • view
I would not stress the "can't conceive" as lesbians can conceive children, some cis-trans lesbian couple even with each other.
aug 25, 2025, 10:22 am • 2 0 • view
Actually, the story of how I told my niece is a whole lot funnier. She had overheard my sister on the phone saying, "Isn't that a GAY BAR?" when I had told her I was going to a drag show at Discovery the night before I picked up my niece. So the conversation started with "Aunt Jennifer, you went to
aug 25, 2025, 2:25 pm • 2 0 • view
a GAY BAR last night!", leading me to ask her, "Do you know what a gay bar is?" "Yes," she answered, "it's a bar for GAY PEOPLE where they listen to music, and dance, and drink lots of drinks with bubbles on top." And I was like, yeah, that's what a gay bar is! So then I asked, "Do you know what it
aug 25, 2025, 2:27 pm • 2 0 • view
it means when someone is gay?" And I get this blank stare. So I explain, "Sometimes men want to live with another man like your mom and dad do, or ladies want to live with other ladies like your mom and dad do. You know my friends Brian and John who we met at the music festival? They're gay." Her
aug 25, 2025, 2:29 pm • 3 0 • view
only question was, "Which one was Brian?"
aug 25, 2025, 2:29 pm • 8 0 • view
This was how I explained it to my 6-yo niece.
aug 25, 2025, 2:19 pm • 1 0 • view
That is exactly how i described Gay also.
aug 25, 2025, 7:20 am • 0 0 • view
You know the thing is, the religious types aren’t afraid to explain what it means to be gay. Speaking from personal experience here - they’re happy to explain it to young children and then add that all gays are destined to suffer for eternity in hell. This is just another lie, manufactured panic.
aug 25, 2025, 1:20 pm • 5 0 • view
"How do two women have a baby?" They adopt. Adoption really shouldn't be this horrible taboo from kids, and making it such is only perpetuating the impression among kids that being raised by adoptive parents is in some way inferior to being raised by their biological parents.
aug 27, 2025, 6:20 pm • 0 0 • view
And they say "oh, ok. What's for dinner?"
aug 25, 2025, 4:40 pm • 5 0 • view
Racism: Yes son, their skin is darker. Humans evolved across the planet and some parts had intense sun. Their skin evolved a brilliant defence and made it darker to compensate. The end.
aug 26, 2025, 12:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Don't explain the meaning of gay to kids and they go down the millenial route where they learn it at school as an alternative and biting word for "shit" and only later figure out the actual meaning and have to actively stamp out the bad habit of using it wrong.
aug 25, 2025, 9:34 am • 1 0 • view
I assumed i learned what a lesbian was from someone on the schoolyard, but when I was in elementary school I told all my friends that my mom was a lesbian because she introduced me to someone by saying "Marilyn married me." Marilyn, I eventually learned, presided over my mom and dad's wedding.
aug 25, 2025, 5:13 am • 14 0 • view
It is when you need to make sure the kid hates lesbians a lot
aug 25, 2025, 9:54 am • 2 0 • view
Also, hot take, but we shouldn't make rules for society based around what parents want and don't want to explain things to their kids. It's a recipe for a shitty society full of shitty people.
aug 25, 2025, 11:26 am • 3 0 • view
I was reading a Bowie biography which had the word homosexual. Asked mom what it meant. Said it was when two men love each other. Ok I said. We went about our day. She always told me she wouldn't lie to me like other adults had. Except about Santa.
aug 25, 2025, 3:39 pm • 9 0 • view
Yeah, but then what if they want that for themselves and humiliate ME by making me have a GAY KID?!? *far right crying and victim complex intensifies*
aug 25, 2025, 5:20 am • 7 0 • view
I was 11 when I heard the term "bisexual". I asked what it it meant, and my stepbrother said "it's someone who is attracted to both men and women". And I said "Oh, that's me. I didn't know there was a word for it." That was also my "coming out", or as close to it as I ever got.
aug 25, 2025, 4:02 am • 107 1 • view
this was the exact exchange i had with my mom when i asked about a gay couple we knew. and i was like ok that makes sense. easy.
aug 25, 2025, 6:20 pm • 2 0 • view
Only slightly disappointed that wasn’t something hilarious and a little offensive, but still good to see some parents have some sense.
aug 25, 2025, 4:33 am • 1 0 • view
And they walk away saying ok and never think about it again.
aug 25, 2025, 11:46 am • 1 0 • view
i can’t believe he left out “and it’s even better” smh
aug 25, 2025, 4:55 am • 0 0 • view
The homophobia in some cultures is so deeply rooted that they kill their own for sport, refuse to comprehend our species’ actual biology, and live miserable lives in constant fear of appearing at all gay or gender divergent. It’s a kind of mental slavery to a set of white evangelical masters.
aug 25, 2025, 4:18 am • 1 0 • view
I think people purposely make it difficult to understand for kids. So they'll grow up thinking it's some "complicated" thing, when it's clearly not. It's just part of life. Like your father explained. . .
aug 26, 2025, 6:03 am • 0 0 • view
When I was around 8 someone at school said that two of our teachers - both women - had gone to a movie together and another kid said "maybe they're lesbians" and I'd never encountered the word before but immediately understood it from context
aug 25, 2025, 5:05 am • 16 0 • view
For real. Sad to him cancelling himself like this.
aug 25, 2025, 4:01 am • 11 0 • view
Hmm? Who are we talking about again? I think I missed the drama.
aug 25, 2025, 8:18 am • 3 0 • view
Snoop Dogg complaining about queer representation in kids media
aug 25, 2025, 4:36 pm • 1 0 • view
The crazy thing to me about trans phobia is that as a child, I knew what a sex-change operation was, and a trans life strikes me as a lot less complicated.
aug 25, 2025, 7:44 pm • 1 0 • view
There’s a really nice book - Heather Has Two Mommies. I told my kids; families are all different but what really matters is unconditional love.
aug 25, 2025, 10:35 am • 8 0 • view
Oh gosh... I remember hearing the name of this book when I was in school. I just laughed because I thought it was funny. I treated it like it was a joke. Hits so differently now after everything I've learned and realizing how much sooner I could have learned if books like this were more normalized.
aug 25, 2025, 1:41 pm • 3 0 • view
There are even books now for explaining artificial insemination and surrogacy to preschoolers Even if you don’t know yourself the answer, there’s always “I dunno, kiddo, shall we see if there’s a book at the library that can help us?”
aug 26, 2025, 12:46 am • 4 0 • view
Seriously! We made sure my son knew from the start that there just are people who like people of the opposite sex, the same sex, both, all, neither, and people who aren’t one sex or the other, just all kinds of people. It’s really, really not difficult.
aug 25, 2025, 3:20 pm • 4 0 • view
Sounds like a great dad!
aug 26, 2025, 11:20 am • 1 0 • view
I did a version of that answer when I was a kindergarten teacher after a boy told 2 girls they’re not allowed to marry each other. Was very proud of myself. Next day the little boy charged in to the class in full preacher mode and declared “Mr. D, my grandma says you are the devil.” Adults suck.
aug 25, 2025, 1:39 pm • 16 0 • view
Mr. D, you are absolutely not the Devil.
aug 25, 2025, 1:40 pm • 4 0 • view
The best thing was, he was this really tiny black kid with a southern accent (living in Wisconsin) who said everything like Samuel L. doing the Ezekiel 25:17 scene in pulp fiction. He could make “Mr. D, I gotta poop.” Sound like a sermon. I hope took years off Grandmas life when he told her that.
aug 25, 2025, 1:53 pm • 4 0 • view
Kids can be the greatest. What sticks into their skulls is endlessly fascinating.
aug 25, 2025, 3:37 pm • 4 0 • view
They literally accept it without judgement. Their entire concept of sex is unbiased and this is exactly when you teach them they love is all that matters
aug 26, 2025, 3:58 am • 4 0 • view
When I was around 8, I asked my father "what's a lesbian?" He said, "you know how satisfying it is to tighten the jar lid?" Its like that, but two jars." It's really not that hard to explain things to kids.
aug 25, 2025, 12:01 pm • 0 0 • view
They dont believe that tho. Even the most polite republican still thinks it’s “sinful” and the prerogative of the state.
aug 25, 2025, 12:10 pm • 1 0 • view
When I was around 8, i asked my mother 'what's 'a gay person''* *(I used a slur because that's what I'd heard) She then explained a pile of bigoted tripe. (of its time) But I have a brain & a heart and I know better now. In fairness, my mother does too because age doesn't prevent learning.
aug 25, 2025, 3:36 pm • 4 0 • view
It's difficult for bigot parents to explain, because 9 times out of 10, those parents don't love each other, and therefore cannot use that explanation.
aug 26, 2025, 5:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Especially in ways that they'll understand. You put nearly anything in terms a child would understand and they're just like "Okay!" Before getting into child shenanaigans or asking you wayyyyy deeper questions somehow.
aug 25, 2025, 6:08 am • 8 0 • view
I missed the dad context on first skim read and thought you, a lesbian, were explaining to your kid what lesbians are and that was a very funny mental image
aug 26, 2025, 11:26 am • 0 0 • view
Yes, but also he's lying. Nobody's kid asked that question. And if they did, that dipshit isn't stopping in the middle of the movie to explain the birds and the bees to SOMEONE ELSE'S KID. It's just absurd.
aug 25, 2025, 4:19 am • 9 0 • view
They're not worried about it being complicated. They're worried how they'll include enough hateful bullshit to pass their prejudices along without sounding so absurd and evil that their kids learn they can't be trusted.
aug 25, 2025, 6:52 pm • 1 0 • view
"You know how your mother and I love each other?" "But you don't love each other." "Okay, that's a bad example..."
aug 25, 2025, 5:12 am • 19 0 • view