<p>Well this is probably really odd to ask parents, but I was wondering how you breached the topic of puberty and/or sex with your children and what their formal education taught about these subjects. My parents never once spoke to me about either of these two subjects, I learned almost everything from my friends and I learned about puberty from a sex ed class in 5th and 7th grade (well actually it was just a 30 minute talk in 5th grade and a quarter class in 7th grade). It was always assumed no sex until marriage. If you feel comfortable, how did you go about this, and did you child have to have a formal sex education?</p>
<p>Here is your can of worms. Should be an interesting topic though. At least a break from all this affirmative action talk.</p>
<p>Don’t ask why…but this idea came while I was eating chili from skyline lol. I figured I’d get some interesting conversation. :D</p>
<p>I feel infinitely comfortable with it (I discuss embarrassing things with people for a living), but until he was age 17 or so my son would shut me down when I tried to talk about sex. I shoved age-appropriate books at him and hoped he read them.</p>
<p>Skyline–Yumm. If I only could keep it off my shirt.</p>
<p>I have two daughters so I tell my wife to handle it. ;)</p>
<p>Well, since mine were homeschooled, they never received any formal outside sex education. I would discuss questions with my sons as they came up–usually when driving in the car, for some reason. (That helped, because they were in the back seat and couldn’t see if my face got a bit pink. My parents never discussed it at all with me, so it was a bit difficult for me.)</p>
<p>We were always very honest with our sons. We gave them direct answers to their questions, but didn’t try to give them more than they were ready for. (no full fledged “talk” at age six) Then when each son turned 12, we gave him a book to read on the subject, one that was frank in its discussion, but also included our religious views. After the book was read, the 12 year old got to go to the beach overnight with his dad (my husband), just the two of them. There, along with having a great time, they discussed sex and any questions he had. It was a kind of coming-of-age thing for them. (If we had a daughter, we would have had a mother-daughter overnighter.)</p>
<p>Of course, they also received a lot of information, accurate or not, from friends.</p>
<p><a href=“http://mb11.scout.com/fwisconsin36703frm10.showMessage?topicID=6518.topic&index=17[/url]”>http://mb11.scout.com/fwisconsin36703frm10.showMessage?topicID=6518.topic&index=17</a></p>
<p>If you missed Wife Swap you missed a new icon being born. Great Fark</p>
<p>Was it ‘Wife Swap’ or ‘Trading Spouses’? Either way its hard to talk girlfriends into the whole idea.</p>
<p>D had the requisite health classes, which included practical things like hands-on examination of condoms, statistics out the gazoo, and all the straightforward clinical stuff.</p>
<p>Never any formal stuff at home but I’m sure there was a large body of accumulated attitudes and information via discussing everything from movies to what happened to friends, etc.</p>
<p>When my kids were about 6th and 7th, I got tapped to be the person doing the “prom lecture” for the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade at the school. The kids, of course, heard about the lecture from all of the older students that knew them and thought it would be funny to tease them about their mother’s use of the expression “full-body condom.” (As in: the only sure way not to get any diseases is to wear a full body condom–it was a joke.) So I got to re-hash the lecture with the kids as we drove home that day, which was interesting, because I found out just how much they’d learned from listening in on the conversations between the older kids in their classes…</p>
<p>We had a lot of discussions over the years about the emotions of sex, as opposed to the mechanics and biology (which we’d covered thoroughly by then), because the biggest question was always: how do you know you love someone enough to have sex.</p>
<p>As the children of an OB/GYN father, my kids knew too much too soon! At the age of almost 3 my son had a dress up day at preschool; the kids were to come dressed like one of the different jobs they were discussing in class-fireman, doctor, teacher, etc… My son wanted to go as a doctor, so he wore a pair of his father’s scrub with shoe covers, head cover, mask, and stethoscope. That morning he comes to the kitchen holding his cabbage patch doll, he wants to take it to school with him. When I ask why, he said he was going to deliver a baby. I had to explain to him that most 3 year olds didn’t know where babies came from and that doing a delivery in preschool wasn’t a good idea. He thought about this a moment and then said, “OK, I will just do a C-section instead!”</p>
<p>I had to go into the classroom when I dropped him off to warn the teacher what he had in mind. Luckily between the teacher and myself we were able to convience him that maybe a pediatrician would be a better choice for the day!</p>
<p>
That is hilarious!</p>
<p>I didn’t even know what a C-section was until I started watching some of those pregnancy shows a couple years ago! :D</p>
<p>I don’t think my parents ever talked to me about sex… I think I just learned from books.</p>
<p>I talked a great deal to my kids and I have not stopped talking yet. I talk more about the emotional aspects than the physical; to me the emotional parts are neglected in sex ed in school.</p>
<p>I am as concerned about my children becoming emotionally numb from multiple partners as I am about preganacy and STDs.</p>
<p>My mother was a prude; I got little info. However, my Dad did tell me some things. As awkward as it was (and LOL, it WAS in the car!) I appreciated getting that info from my Dad and I remember that conversation to this day.</p>
<p>S1 was insatiably curious about everything. He wanted to attend the birth of his 2nd sibling at 5, but we made him wait to attend the birth of his 3rd (and last!) sibling at 7. I don’t know why he was so insistent, but the hospital actually had very age-appropriate and informative classes for siblings who attended births. Why there was so much interest in this, I don’t know. At any rate, all my kids had the “easy” stuff taught to them from their first question at 3 or 4 on - just enough to satisfy their curiosity. We (primarily me) added to the knowledge base as they got older. The hard part of sex ed is the emotional and responsiblity issues. We have simply tried to establish open communications where parents and kids can discuss things without fear of judgement or consequences. That’s tough, but something you start working on when they’re little and hope you’ve got enough time invested so that when things do get difficult and awkward, you can still discuss it. That your kids still want to talk to you about it. Seems to be working so far, I hope!</p>
<p>Can’t help relaying a funny story about my own sex ed. Growing up in a small, rural community with an “old maid” home ec teacher to deliver sex ed lectures was …uneventful. However, during my sophomore year the school hired a brand new teacher who probably had no more experience than her students. **<em>**Taking a break here to warn that this story might offend. Sorry in advance </em> She told us that masterbation was any repetitive movement that gave you pleasure, like twiddling your thumbs. Taking her at her word, my friend Jane’s reply to the principal’s greeting of “Hi, what’s going on?” while she was waiting in the office and, you get the picture, rocking back and forth in her chair was …“Masterbating!”</p>
<p>Well, I thought that since my first two were sons, DH would get the privilege, but he thought that since I was a nurse, I should. 
</p>
<p>We had made it a policy from the get go to never, ever lie about anything to our children. (This included Santa, much to the dismay of almost everyone.) To us, always knowing they would get an honest answer from us would make us more approachable about anything. I think it has worked, by and large.</p>
<p>Oldest was incredibly curious from an early age, and I tried to be as accurate as possible without giving him more info than I felt was appropriate. At age 5, he was in Sunday School when the teacher was explaining a story about Jesus at a younger age, and reminded the children that Jesus, too, was once a boy. And S piped up and explained that before that, he was a sperm and an egg. (His theology training hadn’t gotten as far.)</p>
<p>Later that night, though, I learned that I had left something out. He’d apparently been doing a lot of thinking about the subject, and as I put him to bed, he said, with sudden enlightenment, “Mom! The sperm gets through the stitches in the clothing, right?”</p>
<p>And we’ve learned that once we explain things carefully to the oldest, he will, in turn, take care of the younger ones. :)</p>
<p>Whew…
My son asked a LOT of questions, and followed my pregnancy with his younger sister very closely. He was age 4 at the time. I remember overhearing him tell an off color joke to friends when he was about 9 years old that embarrassed me terribly, but made it clear that he understood far more than I thought any kid needed to at that age. </p>
<p>Daughter’s primary sources of information along the way have been:
a) Her older brother (see above)
b) At age 9, the Starr Report. (They printed the whole darn thing in the paper)
c) Talk Sex with Sue Johanson. (By the time I found out that the program existed and that she was watching it, she already had been watching for years. I started watching with her. No wonder she knew more than me).</p>
<p>Cocamom, me too. My older kids, 10 & 6 at the time, watched me give birth to the youngest one.</p>