Sex Education

balletshoes

Tropez wrote: »

Well, admittedly, they don't help you out on technique and the like.

Perhaps it was because I went to a CofE school but
we had the standard sex education lessons as part of PSHE in Year 7 and then Religion and Ethics classes in Year 8, 9 and again in 10 covered everything about teenage pregnancy, abortions etc.

we also started our sex education at school at age 11/12 - but personally I think thats too late - your body is already changing and you may already be going through puberty.

My DD got her first sex education class at school last month, year 5, so 9 and 10 year olds. My DD has known a bit about where babies come from, periods, body hair, body changes etc for a couple of years, if she asks I tell her. I am going to get her a book we can go through together as well.

Tropez

balletshoes wrote: »

we also started our sex education at school at age 11/12 - but personally I think thats too late - your body is already changing and you may already be going through puberty.

My DD got her first sex education class at school last month, year 5, so 9 and 10 year olds. My DD has known a bit about where babies come from, periods, body hair, body changes etc for a couple of years, if she asks I tell her. I am going to get her a book we can go through together as well.

I was already going through puberty as it happens. I was the only boy in the class with pubic hair :rotfl:

I think it is a bigger change though for women as opposed to men. I look back at puberty and nothing much really happened. You don't notice your voice getting deeper and everything else that you do notice is largely superficial. Even the bouts of acne were just dealt with.

Truth is as far as sex education goes, I picked up anything useful and important myself from somewhere else. The school lessons just reinforced it and as I say, I never even spoke to my parents about it.

pinkclouds

mrs_marty wrote: »

When is the right age to discuss this with your children

The right age is whenever they start to ask questions about it.

Chakani wrote: »

the best advice I was ever given was "answer precisely the question they have asked, don't get yourself tied into knots trying to give them information they haven't asked for".

I agree with the advice above. That is what I do with my kids, who are 4 and 2 years old. I only tell them about things they are interested in - such as why you have a tummy button and where babies come out.

bargainbetty

My eleven-year-old goddaughter was given two lessons on sex education. After the first, containing the mechanics of it all, she looked at her mother with absolute disgust and said 'I cannot believe you did that. It's horrible.'

After the second, containing video footage of a live birth, she refused her dinner and wouldn't talk about it for days....

My mum told me what I need to know, as I asked about it. No lies, no euphemisms, just biological facts. Her mum had let her reach puberty without any knowledge at all, and she swore blind it wouldn't happen to me.

No, no pregnancies here either! She also made sure I knew what contraception was and had enough sense to take care of myself.

DaisyFlower

Given that children are now having babies the earlier the better. Sadly, schools have to tackle the issue as many parents dont.

As well as the mechanics being covered by the school, it should also concentrate on relationships and being in charge of your own contraception and include a section on the CSA and cost of raising a child.

However, until we stop benefits for simply having a child, it doesnt matter how much is covered at school it wont be listened to by those who see it as a meal ticket.

artichoke

hi

my kids have both seen vidoes of their own birth :eek: and so know how the baby get out and have seen the blood on their bodies and seen the umbilical cord cut on the videos...

DH took the videos on his digital camera whilst holding me up at the same time:eek:

I work on a farm so they have also seen lambs, calves, piglets etc all beng born and also know all about how mammals get the baby in too....

the only question dd asked that was difficult was why do men only have babies with one woman and not have babies with a whole load like the tups who go in with a flock of 100 ewes......and the boar has 3 sows in his field...

kinda hard to explain that one ....daddy only made babies with one woman (as far as i know:eek:) but some men and women do have babies with 2 or 3 or more partners..... but why? its kinda complicated.. but gives us a chance to talk about the difference between humans and other mammals.... but hard as we are sure the boar does LOVE his sows.... so hard to say animals don't have feelings and emotions...

the other difficulty is that dd is ivf and has seen a photo of herself and her siblings who did not fertilize when they were 3 day embryoes.....

so she knows the doctors helped us to get pregnant with her..... she then asked if the doctor put his penis in my vagina
to help get me pregnant:o

so we had to explain natural conception and ivf to kids at preschool age...

but although we do use other words at home they also know the correct names for all their body parts and those of the animals at the farm...

they have also seen me insert tampons etc so know about periods etc.... the dog on heat bleeding also raises this subject...

we have just been honest and told them from a very early age so nothing will be a shock to them...

art

dizsiebubba

artichoke wrote: »

they have also seen me insert tampons etc so know about periods etc....

Erm so 3 people have thanked this user... does this part not make anybody else feel uncomfortable?

artichoke

dizsiebubba wrote: »

Erm so 3 people have thanked this user... does this part not make anybody else feel uncomfortable?

why does it make you uncomfortable - the kids have been in the bath when i was on the toilet and seen tampons being inserted or sanitary towels being changed.... they saw blood and i explained what it was....

i did not want them to think i was injured or hurt and so explained what was happening....

why does that make you uncomfortable??

It is better to be honest and explain the facts to children from the very beginning...

art

mrs_marty

Thanks everyone for your posts, and certainly makes me feel I should be starting some kind of talk. Going to look at some books and use that as a gentle starting point. Even if I dont do it straight away, certainly something that can be raised sooner rather than later.

jamespir

dizsiebubba wrote: »

Erm so 3 people have thanked this user... does this part not make anybody else feel uncomfortable?

no not at all me and my brothers were told about periods cause my sis was going through them


and they learn about them in school