Let's Talk About Sex: How to Talk to Your Child About Sex!

Sex is one of those topic that are not often touch
at home. This may be due to the lack of information,
feeling uncomfortable to sit and talk to your child
about sexual related issues or not being able to
know how to start a conversation with him/her.
But fear no more, today you will learn a couple of
useful tips that will take your mind of embarrassment
when talking to your son or daughter about the
sensible topic of sex.

The idea of this post is to transmit a little of
confidence in one's self and take courage
that sexuality is not a negative topic to
talk about, it is actually a positive thing to
explore with your child. Topics like
body parts, homosexuality, the questions 
of what is a condom? What is sexual 
intercourse? Where babies come from? 
or the usual question of, what are genitals? are some
of the few shockers that a parent find themselves
into.

To answer these important questions, first we need
to understand why is your child asking you this.
As a parent, you might want to say, hey, this is a  
very good question, what to do think (e.g. genitals) mean ?
Often, children might come up with answers that might
be close to the response that you are about to given them
whereas some other children may have a totally different meaning
of what genitals are. This is specifically why you ask, what the word means,
they might be asking you something else and you are totally explaining something
completely different.

Always normalize and validate the child's question,
this way they won't feel like they asked a stupid
and unreasonable question. Always, provide positive,
factual and honest answer about sexuality and
the sexual reproductive system.

Many children aren't unable to speak to their parents
about sex due to the social taboo that it is a "bad thing" to
talk about sexual related information. But, unfortunately,
it is harming the child's right to know certain useful information
that they will use during their later developmental stages.
This is why, it is always important to encourage this types of conversation
with your child, even at a elementary level.
Make home a confortable environment to talk about
sexuality, make it so, they are able to come to
you for questions, worries and advices.

It is important, that as a parent, you are involve
in your child's life. I suggest and strongly recommend
that all parents take sexual education workshops, which
will help you greatly when sitting down and having those
"awkward conversation."

If you would like more information, tips,
brochures or resources such as websites and books
related to either elementary, middle school or high school
sexual topics please email me at rantparedes01@gmail.com
or visit Planned Parenthood Website @ www.ppnyc.org

Remember encourage sexual conversation with your child, do not
shut it off!