were probably told yourself, under similar circumstances. You will
perhaps say that the doctor brings babies in his satchel, or that
the stork brings babies in his bill. Or perhaps you will feel
impelled to tell Harry to go out and play, and ask you again a few
years later when he will be old enough to understand.

The telling of a myth like the stork story is harmless enough for
the time being. We have entertained Santa Claus for ages without
undermining the morals of our children. And we shall continue to
retell the fairy stories, for, although they are not, strictly
speaking, "true" stories, they have their place in the life of the
child. Why can we not go on, then, as we have done in the past,
leaning upon the stork?

The difference between the story of where babies come from and the
story of Santa Claus or Mother Hubbard is a very important one.
Santa Claus and Mother Hubbard represent ideas and interests that
are but passing phases in the child's development, whereas knowledge
about reproduction is something that grows in interest with the
years and reaches its deepest significance just at the time when you
can hardly, if at all, regain your hold upon your child, once you
have lost it. It does not matter much who disillusions your child
about Santa Claus. The disappointment is brief, and soon the child
can look upon the legend as a joke. But it does matter very much who
tells your child that the stork story is all a lie, and _how_
he is told.

It is well for mothers to realize that the embarrassment which they
may feel when this question is first asked is quite foreign to the
child, for the child at this time has no knowledge whatever of sex.