It’s critical for dads to have the sex talk with their children early and to get it right. It’s not OK to leave the big talk to mom or to assume the teachers at school will take care of it. Think about it this way: the teenage brain is hard-wired to care about sex, so when you talk about it your teen will listen closely to anything you say. Don’t miss that opportunity! I’ve noticed a few things dads get wrong when they try to have a sex talk with their teenagers. Are you making any of these common mistakes? 1. Don’t Avoid Your Own Sex Life It can be awkward to talk to your teenager about … [Read more...]
Sex: Talk to Your Kids About It so They Don’t Repeat Your Mistakes
There’s no evidence of my mom or dad ever sitting me down for “the talk.” Any knowledge of female anatomy I gained during my formative years was acquired from unseemly sources: a flickering screen in the dark of night in the basement, glossy rags stashed beneath off-season clothing, and crude classmates in the hallways of my private, all-boys high school. If you were to develop a sex ed plan, mine would be close to the opposite of ideal. My lack of understanding about girls, and about my own body too, was painfully obvious during my high school years … and in the years that followed. … [Read more...]
Having That Talk about Where Babies Come from Babies Down the Road
You know those times you’re innocently talking to a child and they open up a whole new dimension of where you were planning on going with the conversation? Maybe it should be called "the autobahn"or "the cul-de-sac" of a child’s conversation. Sometimes it’s an innocent cul-de-sac. The conversation goes round and round. Other times, it takes that light-speed Endor jump from innocent to "hold me tightly, I need a moment." This talk we had is a combination of two types of streets. We were on the highway and Jake was talking about some of his friends who were going or had just returned from … [Read more...]
‘The Talk’ about Sex is One Every Parent Needs to Have First
We had a plan for "the talk." That plan was to wait. Wait until 4th grade was over. Wait until the summer break between 4th and 5th grade arrived. Wait until we could have the reproductive health, er, the talk about sex with the Bear at a leisurely pace and without any nuggets or zingers from it seeping into her classroom chit-chats or into the recess yard banter or into the cafeteria scuttlebutt. We were waiting just a little while longer to have the talk about sex with our 10-year-old daughter both for us, to preserve a few more glorious weeks of blissful childhood unknowing in our oldest … [Read more...]