the birds and the bees

I am watching an Oprah I dvr’d from earlier this week that focuses on talking to your kids about sex.

All I can think is, “Oh my God.”

They showed this one mom giving her 10-year old daughter “the talk” with the help of a professional sex therapist…and of course I imagined myself having to do the same thing in a few years.

This episode recalled lots of whispering at slumber parties about the birds & the bees, the “bases,” getting your period, etc. My mom gave me some books when I was very young (perhaps too young, but after all, my brother Kevin was born when I was almost 6 and apparently I asked a lot of questions about how he came to be!). They featured these goofy looking cartoon characters. one book was called,”Where Did I Come From,” and the other was, “What’s Happening to Me?” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what these were about. I brought the former one to school with me and showed all my friends at recess. Mom got a call from my teacher; she had no idea I’d stuffed the book in my backpack and taken it with me to school!

I think it’s funny how little I really knew/understood about everything despite these books and having had talks with my mom. I never had serious boyfriends until I was a senior in high school, and never had sex until I was in college. but seeing kids these days—it seems like they’re growing up much younger now (does that make sense?). And that’s scary to me. I want to arm my girls with as much information as they need, but I hope I can do it in an effective way. I also hope they will be smart about sex. Perhaps if I have a drink or two before our “talks,” things will go smoothly. Ha!