My son saw our dogs mating on the street

Dear Diana, My son is eight years old and he recently witnessed our dog mating on the street. Since then, he's been troubling me with weird questions about facts-of-life.

Being a rather conservative mother, I don't know how to handle his curiosity. I asked my husband to help me out here but he being the busy guy that he is, isn't putting in time or any efforts to quell the situation. Our son is bright but his questions about private parts are making me blush. It's like he has hit puberty five years earlier than usual! What should I do?
- Reetika

Illustration/ Satish Acharya

Dear Reetika,
When he saw it and asked you a question, you should have answered it there and then and finished the topic. By putting off the answer and telling him not to ask such questions and by acting awkward, you only fuelled his curiosity more. And what is so difficult in answering a child's question that you need your husband's support for it? You should have just answered the question and your kid would not have bothered you repeatedly with it. You have made a mountain out of a molehill, sit down with a son and answer his replies. There will be some stupid ones, but you need to answer it with a straight face.