Here’s the Thing: Sex Edu-ma-cation

April 29, 2009 I Love My Family

So my 10 year old brought home a permission slip for me to sign, allowing him to participate in sex education at school.  Topics to be covered are puberty, the reproductive system, the importance of personal hygiene, and in his words, “the teacher is going to show the girls how to use a tampon!”

To which he immediately followed up with, “well not show them show them, but yanno, show them.”

Heh.

Here’s the thing.

There are certain topics that I would prefer to teach our children, ourselves.  Namely, sex and drugs come to mind.

Last year, a police officer came to school and talked to the kids about marijuana, cocaine, heroin and peer pressure.

Alright fine.  That’s great.  But they teach him about meth, prescription drugs, huffing, strawberry quick, or what to do if your very best friend in the whole wide world offers you any of the above? NO.  I did that.

Did the fact that the school taught my kid about drugs open up discussion in our home?  Not really.  Before he listened to that police officer, he listened to us.  He saw pictures of every drug I could think of.  He was told exactly what each drug would do to him, how it would make him feel, and informed of the risks involved, especially since trying meth once could kill him.  We assured him he could call us any time of day if he was in a situation and that we would not get mad.  We talked about situations and how he would handle them.

Enter, the sex talk.  We’ve always been very open with him, always answering any questions he has. He’s pretty well informed on anatomy anyway since he is a big reader, and we’ve talked to him a little about STD’s and stuff, trying to keep it age appropriate, etc.  The fact of the matter is, kids are performing sex acts at a younger age than we did and we felt we should inform him of the risks, as well as talk about respecting yourself and others.

“Are the kids at school all giggly about this unit?” I asked him.

“Yeah totally,” he laughed.

“Well if you have any questions at all about the unit, don’t hesitate to talk to Dad or I,” I offered.

He giggled.

“What?” I asked.

“You said unit,” he laughed.

I laughed too.  “Well if you have any questions about YOUR unit, take those to Dad.  He’s a unit expert.”

Anyway, I know there are families who don’t talk about anything in this regard, and I guess it’s good the school does cover it.  It just makes me sad that some kid’s parents refuse to talk to their kids about stuff.  My mother never ever explained anything to me.  I learned from friends and books, and maybe that’s why, in grade 6, I thought men and women had sex to make the hole bigger so the baby could come out.

True story.