Raising Healthy Kids: Families Talk About Sexual Health #1

DVD Excerpt: Jeanne Blake: As a medical reporter, many parents have told me how challenging it is for them to talk with their children about sexuality. Many believe those talks can wait until the teen years. But the way you communicate with your children, from the moment of birth, plays a big role in their development as healthy, responsible adults.

Barry Zuckerman: Sexual education, which sometimes I like to think of as sexual health, begins at birth.

Pam Wilson: Children are learning something about sexuality every day of their lives, and whether or not a parent says, I am educating my child about sexuality, they are.

Jeanne Blake: There are other powerful influences in your child's life, beyond the family --- their friends, the media and the world around them. So if you want your children to share your values, you have to make a conscious decision to teach them.

Pam Wilson: Many parents worry about what to say to their very young children about sexuality, but a perfect place to begin is helping children to learn to label and appreciate the different parts of their body. So, if parents are labeling the eyes and the nose and the knees and the toes, they also need to label the vulva and the testicles and the penis.

Kid: Ear.

Kid: Head.

Kid: Nose.

Kid: Eye.

Kid: Leg.

Kid: A vagina

Kid: A boy has a penis and a girl has a vagina.

Kid: She doesn't have a penis. She has a vagina.

Kid: (giggles, giggles)

Jeanne Blake: Why is that funny, Emily?

Kid: Because everybody talks about that in my class that they're private parts and you should never talk about them.

Jeanne Blake: Really? Do you think that's true?

Kid: No!

Jeanne Blake: Well, why? Why do you think it's okay to talk about them?

Kid: Because they are just part of your body!

Barry Zuckerman: When they see a neighbor ah who's pregnant, or they heard about a relative who just had a baby, ah even if they don't ask, this is an opportunity to tell them a story or give them information. That's when they need it, when there's a desire to learn because something's happening in their environment, a teachable moment.

Ray: And, and I remember talking with the girls ah and I think we managed to kind of strike the balance in the sense of telling them the fact that you know, you didn't have to be afraid of everybody but here were some signs and signals that you should look for, to tell you that this, you know, the way they're expressing and reacting to you, what they're doing to you, isn't appropriate. And, we talked about some of the places that they might touch on your body, that you had a right to say no, that's not right and ah you should get another adult and even if they tell you not to tell anybody, in fact you should and so on.

Jeanne Blake: So remember, set the stage for responsibility by teaching your children to respect limits, watch for opportunities to teach them, and tell the truth. It is a challenge to keep communication open but it's worth it. Your children can have trusting, loving relationships and grow up to be sexually healthy, responsible adults.

Category:

Education

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[jberrybum]

thanks for posting this