The birds and the bees or where do babies come from?

When your kids were little did they ever ask you, "Where do babies come from?"

Did you get nervous and kind of hem-haw, squirm a little and think, oh no, is it time to have the birds and bees talk?

Did you ever wonder how the term 'the birds and the bees' came to mean sex education for little kids? I wondered , so I looked it up on the internet, It seems no one knows for sure.

One source said it was just a step up from the stork bring babies.

It may have been inspired by poetic verse, like this from poet Samuel Coleridge in 1825: "All nature seems at work . . . The bees are stirring - birds are one the wing . . . and I the while, the sole unbusy thing, not honey made, nor pair build, nor sing."

It could have derived from "The Story of Life" by Emma Frances Angell Drake, which was published in 1909. She was trying to explain to her daughter where babies came from by telling her about eggs in a robin's nest and bees moving from plant to plant leaving pollen, which fertilized seeds.

Other sources give credit to Cole Porter for coining the phrase with his song, "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love" in 1928. ". . . Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Let's do it. Let's fall in love."

One internet resource, Nick Green, said, "The phrase, 'the birds and bees,' is hazy by design. It's used to tell children about the mechanics of human sex without mentioning sex or humans."

The term has been cussed and discussed for decades though. It's been used often and taken very seriously by many. And laughed about by just as many.It was even satirized in February 1995, "The Simpson's" animated cartoon TV show episode, "Homer vs Patty and Selma." It included a scene with 10-year-old Bart Simpson saying, "What a day, eh Millhouse? The sun is out, birds are singing, bees are trying to have sex with them - as is my understanding."

But I think they're all wrong. The birds and the bees have nothing to do with where babies come from. My late husband was from Huntingburg, Indiana. According to his mom. he was born at Stork Hospital and delivered by Dr. Stork. Yes, I have a birth certificate. So the stork IS where babies come from.

There you have it. Keep smiling.

Linda Messmer can be reached at 812-448-8725.