When I was little, I told my mom that I wanted to have 5 children and that they would all be boys. She then told me that it wasn't up to me because men determined the gender of the baby. And that was all she said, she didn't explain any of the logic behind it. So for the longest time, I thought that meant that men got to choose if they wanted a boy or a girl. In my mind I worked it out like this: When the woman was only a few months pregnant, the father-to-be would put his hand on her pregnant belly and say whether he wanted a son or daughter and that's what they would have. I guess I figured that involved some kind of magic. I didn't figure out otherwise until I was 10.
A childhood belief about reproduction
others believed things like this
- When I was younger I thought that when a woman was pregnant she would feed her baby through her belly button!— Hennie
- I used to believe that when a woman was pregnant, she fed the baby with a tiny spoon through her belly button.— Marie
- I thought that a woman got pregnant kind of like catching a cold, by being around her husband for a long time.— No Name
- when i was about 7 i used to believe that if you wanted to get pregnant you
had to lick your elbow — Jane - I use to believe that the man peed in the woman to get her pregnant. Didn't know about sperm until sex ed. — das
- I believed that female teachers got to choose if they wanted to be called "mrs. or miss" — Jenna