Informing children of the birds and the bees

[lunavixen]

I was about 8 when I found out, I was reading a basic anatomy book (the how it works books from years ago) and then asked my mum, I got my explanation.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well...does it have to be in one go?

Can't you tell kids the bare basics at a young age, and elaborate later on?

Alternatively, you can get embarrassed by the whole thing, not teach your kids about it, and hope things work out. I'd not really recommend this.

You could always demand the government do something about it... because that always works out so well.

Well, actually, yes. Had decent sex education in my school. Was quite thorough, made sure to repeat stuff every year so nobody could miss it.

 

[keserak]

Billions of humans have lived on farms where sex would be explained, as a matter of practical necessity, by around five years old.

Sex isn't a problem for the kid. It's a problem for the parent. Because the parent has hangups, he or she projects those hangups on the kid's psyche.

The child is fine. It's you.

 

[spartandude]

You could always demand the government do something about it... because that always works out so well.

funny you should say that because i think the shool system needs to also do a better job with this, here in the UK, we had very little sex ed in schools, heck by 14/15/16 (which is the time kids start shagging these days) most of my friends still thought you couldnt get pregnant on your first time with a person, and they believed in the blue balls thing, or that pulling out wont course pregancy and various other crap, STIs were barely covered in class. And some of these people were doing health and social care GCSE courses which cover child care.

I do think children should be taught this stuff (a basic understanding) at a young age, about 7 maybe, and then be taught more as they grow older. Hell the only reason i knew anything is because i had an interest in biology and read my older sister's biology text books sometimes, thats the only reason i knew anything when i was a kid, my mum didnt discuss it with me and i didnt get my first actual lesson in school til age 12.

 

[HoneyVision]

My mother's a boss ***** so she was just as graphic as possible. There's no reason to sugarcoat it.

 

[Lieju]

I just always knew.
I had an interest in biology and grew up on the countryside (and of course I knew women who were pregnant and had kids) so there never was any big revelation about it. Also I read a lot of books.

Of course I didn't have a perfect picture of it immediately, like how likely it is you get pregnant or what risks sex involves, but I found that out little by little.

I don't understand why any of that stuff should be a secret. You might not want to introduce a child to sex, at least not the details, but what's weird about pregnancy?

So, who else watched the Once Upon a Time... [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time...] series? Is there anything like it on television nowadays?

I remember that! It was great.

One of my colleagues recently found out she is pregnant with her third child but she's starting to fret a tad about her 2 sons. Not sure of their exact age but they're around 7 and 5 and my colleague is a bit worried they are going to start asking where babies come from because she isn't sure what to tell them.

How is she going to keep it a secret if she's pregnant? Is she not going to talk about it all and hope they think she got fat?

All the pregnant moms I've known were pretty willing to talk about their baby and how it was kicking and stuff and all the dads wanted to try feeling the kicking and talking to the stomach.

EDIT:

Reason number 43 why i don't want children .

I honestly don't know . Also kids are stupid , so i would informe the. As late as possible , before my ( hypothetical ) 12 year old daughter decides that she want's real baby instead of a doll and starts inserting penises inside her because she thinks it would be fun to have a baby . Hell teenagers barely grasp the concept and end up getting pregnant at 14-15, imagine what a child will do!

Teenagers can and will figure out how to have sex. That's just how it'll turn out. What they don't figure out naturally is how to have sex safely, or whether you shouldn't do it.

Avoid talking about it and all you'll do is have those 14-15 year olds getting pregnant.

Also if you don't tell that 12 year old daughter of yours she needs to have sex to get kids she'll just end up climbing on the roof after some storks or sacrificing her friends to ancient gods to create homunculi since she's apparently a bit mental.

 

[gewuerzgurke]

I really don't see why this is such a big deal. If you will make your children feel like it's a taboo, later it will be a lot more difficult thing for them to make responsible decisions about it. And if you wait until they're actually old enough to _technically_ do those things, it really might be too late.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I never actually had that conversation with either parents. I remember having a badly-done sex ed class at school and my dad asking me maybe three questions on the actual mechanics of it, but aside from that, worked it all out myself, with more than a few embarrassing mishaps. Didn't help that I was brought up in a rather small Welsh town with a population of around 3000. I guess I was about 14 before I actually worked out the social stuff behind it. Yeah, I was a fairly naive/ignorant kid.

 

[McMullen]

I have always been completely mystified by some parent's anxiety about this. I couldn't have been much older than 4 when it was explained to me, and it was absolutely straightforward; no euphemisms, no analogies, just the basic facts and description of the process. At the time I didn't see the appeal of the whole idea, but adults seemed to do a lot of things for fun that didn't interest me at the time so I assumed it was just another one of those things. And that was about as much thought as I gave it until years later.

Just tell your kids the damned truth and things will work out fine. There's nothing that needs censoring here. If you want something that's actually worth worrying about, try explaining the behavior of elected officials to a kid without undoing all that you've been trying to teach them about honesty and respect for the law.

 

[shootthebandit]

We are too scared of sex in the UK and possibly even more so in america. The reason why sex is such a big deal is because its taboo. You tell kids how everything works instead of shielding it from them and its no longer an issue

Take the netherlands for example where sex and drugs are not taboo. Prostitution is legal and therefore highly regulated, teenage pregnancy and STIs are really low and LGBT culture is widely accepted. The only thing that lets the netherlands down is fucking idiots like myself who think its a good idea to go to the 'dam on holiday and take drugs and have sex with a whore but you know why thats so appealing to us? because its a taboo in our country......i rest my case

Its also for this reason i think we should be exposed to alcohol from a young age (obviously in small quantities) so that when we turn 18 or 21 (if you are american) then we dont instantly destroy our livers. While im on the subject 21 is an excessively high minimum drinking age

You tell you children to always tell the truth so why would you be a hypocrite and lie to them

 

[Alcamonic]

Be like my parents, ignorant and afraid of the subject. I am currently 25 and still when the subject comes up on TV or happens to slip into a conversation they freeze up and change channel/subject fast as hell.

Thankfully, school wasn't completely retarded about how it worked (although biased from religion) and friends had their talks with normal/brave parents.