Where did the first baby come from? ELI5 because he is.

Post date: 2021-04-10 18:27:47

Tiny Vat (5 years old) asked me "Where did the first baby come from?". I want to give him a very short age-appropriate answer that will set him up to understand evolution later. I am not too thrilled with my answers so far, and am looking for other approaches to this.

My answer to this question today was that the first baby came from monkeys, because you know that babies don't look exactly like their parents? You don't look exactly like Daddy, right? Well a long time ago a monkey had a baby that didn't look like a normal monkey, and that baby grew up to be a person and not a monkey.

Neither of us seem to be really happy with this answer, and recently I was asked where did the first elephant come from, so this is a question that he is thinking about. I'm hoping for better answers from the Hivemind. I have also been informed that we are descended from apes, not monkeys, but I'm not yet sold on the idea that this is a distinction that I need to make at this stage of explanations. I am no biologist, for sure.

I am not looking for spiritual/religious answers to this question.

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