| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 741.1 | Well, for starters.... | WMOIS::B_REINKE | If you are a dreamer, come in.. | Mon Apr 17 1989 18:31 | 48 |
| Kathy,
There are a variety of ways to discuss sex with kids. By 7 your
daughter should know the simple facts of biology. That females
make eggs and males make sperms and that they mate and the female
(mammal anyway) grows the baby in her uterus. We found that having
chickens and goats and hamsters and cats etc went a long way to
explaining the simple stuff.
Next there are many many good books available on the subject for
kids of all ages. You can buy these with or without your daughter
and let her have them in her book case to read at her leisure.
I have a copy of 'Our Bodies Ourselves' on my bookcase - there for
which ever of my teenagers is interested in reading it.
Third would be to take off on a question. Answer any question raised
matter of factly and with reasonable detail. Try and strike a balance
between answering the specific question and trying to give too much
information when you get a chance to talk at all. (My kids say I'm
guilty of the latter). Rides in cars and other private times are
good for this.
Fourth, would be to point out Ann Landers/Dear Abby/Ask Beth if
any of these are in your local papers. Older kids can easily get
in the habit of enjoying these columns and they have generally quite
good advice.
Fifth, if you feel that it is necessary, create opportunities to
talk about the subject. This can be a spin off from an ad or a
column that you have seen, or something that you have heard. I
got into a good conversation with my oldest daughter (13 then) over
a note in parenting by a father who didn't know what to do about
his pregnant daughter. This weekend there was an article in the
Globe about an ad aimed at teenagers that was promoting safe sex.
I showed it to my 11 year old, and asked her if she knew what the
point of the ad was. She looked at it a bit and said, "sure mom,
it is about preventing AIDS and pregnancy!' (Tho she also added that
she thought the subject - use of male protection - was 'gross').
But I guess we've raised her to be informed (she is the youngest
of five.)
It is sometimes hard to know if a certain kind of information is
too old for a particular kid. You have to play it 'by ear' as it
were. You can tell her that if she has any questions about things
that the other kids say you will be glad to answer and that no
question would be 'too weird' for you.
Bonnie
|
| 741.2 | POINTER | SSDEVO::NGUYEN | | Mon Apr 17 1989 19:22 | 3 |
| There is a notefile called PARENTING. You might want to take a
look at it.
|
| 741.3 | | CADSE::GLIDEWELL | Wow! It's The Abyss! | Mon Apr 17 1989 21:23 | 13 |
| Just adding a footnote.
Kids can be so self-conscious about sex ... they get embarassed
by the subject and by not knowing what they they *think* everyone
else in the world knows (I was and I did).
Anyway, if you want to assure her that she is not alone in
not knowing some things, go read note 452.* in womannotes-v1.
The note has about 150 childhood misconceptions, including
quite a number about sex and totally original answers to
"where-do-babies come from?"
Meigs
|
| 741.4 | Birds 'n' Bees | TYCOBB::LSIGEL | When Life is too much, ROLL WITH IT! | Tue Apr 18 1989 12:49 | 4 |
| There is a "Where do Babies Come from" Videotape in stores, try
it out, it might help.
Lynne S. :-)
|
| 741.5 | STARRY EYES | YUPPY::DAVIESA | Praxis | Tue Apr 25 1989 14:49 | 18 |
|
Kathy,
i guess you were more after a biological explanation to pass on....
but....
whatever you say....
don't forget to mention the love, and have stars in your eyes, will
you?
I learned the mechanics pretty early (schools make quite a good
job of it these days, I'm told) but no-one ever told me how potentially
spiritual, joyous, uplifting and beautiful it could be. I was lucky
enough to find that out, but it seems many people don't......
|