One of my good friends Brenda put together a group on sex ed for Parents. Designed for women of all ages who have children to get together and discuss how to talk to your kids about sex and all things related. Its being held at Planned Parenthood in SLC on monday nights for the next few weeks. I decided to attend not only because I wanted to support Brenda, but because with this pregnancy Elijiah had started to ask all the questions about how babies are made. I struggled initially with how much age appropriate information should a 5 yr old know, and wanting to give him the "right" answers to his questions.( I got 2 great books and read them with him..it was a great thing- I think he is in the know and hasnt asked anymore questions of late..) I truly believe that keeping open lines of communication with your kids about these types of things is critical and will only help down the road as they get older if you start young. Anyway where was I? Oh yea so we had two instructors one a facilitator from Planned Parenthood that does education outreach and another Sex Ed teacher that teaches in all Salt Lake school districts. We started out with an ice breaker discussing what our own experiences with our kids has been. What has been the hardest to talk about, what are the conversations we are most looking forward to and the least. Then we moved into how we were taught shaped how we want to communicate with our own children. Finally we discussed our upcoming meetings and what we want to cover. ( body image, morals/values, the sex act, STD's, pregnancy, sexuality- and how this differs from sex, healthy relationships, and involving the "EX")
It was a great meeting. So many perspectives, all religions, ages of children, and places in life. I think women are so incredible. Here we all were discussing some of the hardest topics to discuss openly and without bias just wanting to make sure the messages we send our kids are correct and allow for our children to grow up with a good message about their bodies, what they think, where they get their information, and hopefully they will make good choices.
I grew up with a Mother that was incredibly good at discussing these topics with her kids. It was embarrassing at times but she was quite open about everything we asked. Now she had limited experience with STD's etc but I got that education from school, knew what was out there, etc so I felt pretty well rounded with the whole thing. However talking about the fundamentals and basics along with prevention of pregnancy is only a part of it. There is this whole thing now days that I know I will have to discuss...its the complicated issue of waiting till marriage VS facing the possibility that my children wont wait. How to discuss that emotional maturity thing, this was what was missing for me growing up. No matter what you teach your kids, they have a curiosity about them and hormones are raging and I refuse to put my head in a hole and think that just because I teach them and church teaches them and there are certain morals and values I have that they will listen. Heck I didnt.( what a disaster too!) anyway I guess because I grew up in a great home with parents that did all the right things and I still chose different I have to prepare myself for the possibility of the same.
Im looking forward to these next few weeks where these and other topics will be discussed.
Thanks again Brenda for getting this together!!!
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