# Would you explain cloning/synthetic biology to a 4-year-old? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069 "2014-03-19T06:05:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/21 "2014-03-21T21:36:06Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > No, I would not explain the process itself unless he specifically asks. Even then, I would offer the information in “layers” instead of explaining it all in detail from the start. > > What you may not remember is that you were probably satisfied with a lot of answers that you got, at least at the moment. You may have come back with more questions later, but that would generally indicate that you were ready for more detailed information. A bright four year old boy might indeed be curious about everything, but once he gets a satisfactory answer to one thing, he just moves on to the next. > > Adults often forget that things that are complicated are sometimes also very simple.\* Overexplaining will usually confuse and bore a child. It’s hard to know what exactly the right level of detail you should give, but I can guarantee you that a 4 year old is nowhere near ready to understand the cloning process. His response to my suggested explanation above will probably be “what’s an identical twin?” > > If you feel it’s important for him to know that he was grown in an artificial womb at that point, maybe you could look into how people talk to kids that age about adoption. This is a similar situation except that the “other mommy” is a machine. He won’t care about how exactly that works at that point, but he will certainly get curious about it later. Will the use of artificial wombs be common at that point, or will they still be an underground technology? The answer to that will affect how Fidel II will explain it. > > Regarding “because I said so:” sometimes parents resort to that because they have already explained to the kid 7 or 8 times why they have to brush their teeth before bed, and they really just want them to brush their damn teeth and go to bed, and they just keep arguing, negotiating, and rules-lawyering because they don’t like the answer they’re getting. And sometimes they do it because they’re at the end of their patience for reasons that may not have anything to do with the kid and they know that if they kid keeps pestering them they’re going to blow up at the kid who absolutely does not deserve it at that moment, so saying “because I said so” is the lesser of two evils. I’ve certainly been there, and hated myself a little bit for resorting to it, but it was better than the alternative. And some parents are just authoritarian jerks, too, but by your description of your own behavior, I suspect you drove 'em to it a time or two. 😉 Having Fidel II drop that line at some point will lend a nice bit of verisimilitude to your story. > > - **I’ll give you an example that makes me laugh every time I hear someone say “how can we possibly explain homosexuality to the children???” Well, my son explained it to me when he was about 4. He ran up to me saying “Mommy mommy mommy mommy!!! You know how men and women sometimes like to go out together?” I said yes. He said “Did you KNOW that sometimes men like to go out with men and women like to go out with women?” I said that yes, I did know that. He said okay and went on his merry way. He just thought it was interesting information and wanted to make sure I knew about it. I really can’t think of a better way to explain homosexuality to a little kid.** That’s hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/22 "2014-03-21T22:51:25Z")
> [@Morwen Edhelwen](#): > > That’s hilarious! EDIT: Thanks for the heads-up; the factors you mentioned were only vague ideas in my mind but I did feel something was missing and that I was ignoring something, so I’m glad I now know what I was ignoring and what I need to include. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/23 "2014-03-22T03:37:06Z")
> [@Morwen Edhelwen](#): > > EDIT: Thanks for the heads-up; the factors you mentioned were only vague ideas in my mind but I did feel something was missing and that I was ignoring something, so I’m glad I now know what I was ignoring and what I need to include. Extra edit to the edit: Just noticed your question on whether artificial wombs are underground or not. I would say artificial wombs are relatively common. There are actually two types of artificial wombs in-universe/in-story; one’s a machine/tank and the other’s a genetically modified animal. There are also surrogate mothers but women who agree to become surrogates usually help out infertile couples as they do in the present day rather than get pregnant with clones. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/24 "2014-03-22T21:51:04Z")
@\*\*Penfeather \*\*and @ **Boyo Jim** : I just had to reply to your posts. It will also not be commodified. But it will probably be secretly advertised in underground newspapers and code. “Join the Free Cuba Movement _insert jokes here_ and defend your country! [sub] Oh and help us raise funds. We need money to replace our weapons and buy new ones. And run these ads.” [/sub] And the need for weapons is part of why they’re running the ads in the first place… ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/25 "2014-03-25T00:59:11Z")
And [here’s](http://http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/cu_che.html) a flag with Che’s image on it. In short, as Boyo Jim said earlier, there’s a lot of examples of things with [I} Guerrillero Heroico\* on them for a Che clone to have a good idea what he would look like when he grew up. My reaction on reading “show him all the stuff whivh already has his image on it” and “he’s gonna be bummed about the royalties” not to mention “That’s the reason for the revolution” 🙂 was a laughing fit. Lucky I wasn’t eating at the time, or this laptop keyboard would be ruined. Also, thanks everyone for your suggestions and opinions! ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/26 "2014-03-25T01:02:34Z")
I would not try or bother. There is no point. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069/27 "2014-03-25T05:08:15Z")
> [@Melchior](#): > > I would not try or bother. There is no point. I’m curious: Why would there be no point? Would there also be “no point” in telling a kid they were conceived through surrogacy or IVF/donor conception? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-explain-cloning-synthetic-biology-to-a-4-year-old/684069.md?page=1)