April is National STD Awareness Month. I was made aware of this by a post from Sondra Santos Drahos, of Happy Healthy Hip Parenting! She recently wrote a posted titled Spreading the word, not an STD! STD’s are serious business, and having ‘the talk’ with your children is extremely important. After read Sondra’s post, it got me thinking about how Daddy and I will handle ‘the talk’ with Pinky. Sure she’s only 15 months old, but 15 years will come in the blink of an eye. Hopefully by then, we’d have already had ‘the talk’.
I remember when I was beginning to develop into a young teenage girl who thought she knew everything, my mom would always say, ‘I need to talk to you.’ I knew what she was referring to, but years went by and she never ‘talked to me.’ She said the same thing to my three younger siblings for years. In 2009, when I was pregnant and 28 years old, she finally sat me and my siblings (22, 21 and 18 years old) down to talk about sex. Why did she wait so long? It’s not that she’s a bad mother, she’s an amazing mom, it was just uncomfortable for her, like most parents are when they have or attempt to have ‘the talk’ with their children.
So when is an appropriate time to talk about sex to your children? It really depends on you and your family; however I believe it’s best to discuss the topic as early on as possible. It’s important for children to learn about sex from home. This way you can share the benefits of waiting, forms of protection if they do decide to have sex, and the types of consequences that come with being sexually active, for example STD’s! It’s important for them to learn about sex in school too, but it’s even more important for them to hear about it at home. They will learn about all the physical aspects of having sex in school, but not the emotional aspects..it’s our responsibility to teach them.
Make it a point to keep an open line of communication at all times. Create a safe haven for your children and ensure that they can talk to you about anything, including sex. The more open we are as parents, the more open our children will be with us. We must also prepare ourselves for what we will hear, but the important thing is for everyone to be honest and open with one another. Although we may not have full control of our children’s sexual choices, we can empower them to make the right decisions.
Don’t be afraid to talk about SEX with your children!
Don’t let your children become part of a statistic, give them ‘the talk’ about sex today! Visit Bloggers Unite for ideas on how to spread the word about STD Awareness Month. Spread the word, and not an STD!
For those of you who have access to a TV, be sure to watch MTV’s 10 Most Outrageous Sex Myths Tuesday, April 26 at 8:30pm ET/PT on MTV. DVR it if you can’t make it or check out www.itsyoursexlife.com for more information on protection, inspiring stories and getting tested.