Teacher responds to hilarious questions from second graders about maternity leave

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 31, 2022. It has since been updated.

North Carolina teacher Nancy Bullard delivered a baby boy in December and returned to school to a host of adorable questions from her students. Bullard is a K-5 science teacher in Charlotte and has shared her pregnancy journey with her second graders right from the start. Prior to taking leave for her delivery, she communicated with her students about pregnancy and explained that she would be back in three months, so they would understand. "I didn’t want them to get caught off guard when I stopped coming to school," the 32-year-old teacher told TODAY Parents. "Plus, I wanted to reassure them that my leave was temporary."

Nancy Bullard, known as Mrs. B to her students, gave birth to a baby boy, Sam, in December 2021 and returned to her class at the start of the next school year. As soon as she entered class, the adorable students shouted, "We missed you!" She started off by showing a picture of herself with a bump and one of her in the hospital followed by her holding a baby. She announced that she delivered a boy named Sam to loud cheers from the class. "I wanted to take a few minutes to catch up with students, introduce them to my son, and let them ask questions," said Bullard. "When I wrote my lesson plan for this day I planned to spend about five minutes answering questions, but ended up spending nearly twenty minutes doing so."

Having shared her pregnancy journey, she opened the floor for questions on her return and was faced with hilarious questions and quips from the second graders. One student shouted, "You were pregnant?!" and everyone roared with laughter. First up, a student asked if Baby Sam has ever cried. Another asked if she had taught the baby to walk. Bullard told them it was too early for Sam to start walking. Another asked if it was tough to have a baby. "Yeah, yeah it is. It's pretty tough," she said.

One student was curious about the sleeping arrangement of the baby and asked, "When he goes to sleep do you have to sleep with him or does he sleep with his dad?" to which Bullard responded, "Nope, he sleeps all by himself in his crib the whole night!" The students clapped and lauded baby Sam for being brave. "That baby is not afraid!" shouted one student. Another student chimed in, "I had to sleep with my mom until I was one year old!"

One student served up the trickiest question for Bullard. "Where do babies come from?" one student asked. Without skipping a beat, she pointed to her mid-section and responded, "They come from an organ called your uterus." She has also been teaching them about how pregnancy works, over the past year, as she shared her journey with them. “Regardless of age, all my students understand the basic concept of pregnancy: there was a baby inside me, now that baby is out, and I spent maternity leave taking care of him,” she said.

The video shared on Instagram garnered more than 74k views. "Students were interested, curious, and excited to get their questions answered," said Bullard. "As a science teacher, I welcome curiosity and always strive to answer questions factually." Before leaving for her maternity leave, she asked for advice from her students on what to do if her baby was crying and got hilarious responses back then as well. Some of the students' advice to stop the baby from crying read: 

1. Make it a fruit salad

2. Let it cry

3. Show him the sky

4. Give it cotton candy

5. Let him watch TV

6. Give him oatmeal-like food

You can catch hilarious and informative videos from Nancy Bullard on Instagram.