When your new baby comes home, your older child will naturally have lots of questions, including the one that strikes fear in the heart of every parent: “Where did that baby come from?”

If your child asks this inevitable question, don’t panic! It’s perfectly fine to answer it in a way that satisfies your child’s curiosity without going into major details.

First, it’s important to find out exactly what it is that your child wants to know. Then you can answer that exact question in simple, age-appropriate words he can understand, without adding anything more. A four-year-old may just want to know at which hospital you were when you got the baby, but a five-year-old may be asking how it got into your belly in the first place.

Since you’ll be a little nervous, you may have an impulse to ramble. But try to remember that on this topic, less is definitely more. It’s OK to tell them only what they want to know at that particular moment, and only answer questions as they come up.

Lots of moms find it very helpful to take on these tough questions slowly, because chances are they will only get more in-depth as your kids grow. In fact, once your older child is satisfied with knowing where the baby came from, you may not be in the clear just yet: Her next question just might be “When is it going back?”