What you don't know can kill you...

Wonderful. And this is what my kids will be taught.

Good thing that I've already started sex ed with them on my own. I'm fairly certain that by the time they get to this point, they'll have more information (correct info, I might add) than they'll be getting in school. (Plus, they'll get the Our Whole Lives curriculum from church, which is a great program.)

Yes, it's different than when I was a kid - sex couldn't kill you then. Yes, I want my kids to wait until it means something, and to be safe. And no, I don't let my kids read or watch sexual things yet. They're only almost-9 and 11, for heaven's sakes. They need time to be kids first before they're mini-teenagers. Surprisingly, they seem to appreciate this. Corwin had some bad moments being teased last year because he wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies (FOURTH graders! Can you imagine?). But he also had a little bit of the "nyah nyah, my mom cares more about me than your mom does" attitude about it too. :) I simply explained that just as you have to put healthy food in a growing body to get a healthy adult body, you have to put healthy thoughts in a growing mind to get a healthy adult mind , and things that are OK for adults to see and read and do aren't always good for kids, because they need to learn first. This seemed to make sense to them, as they're both quite quick to point out things they catch when we're watching TV or a movie together that they don't know if I'll think are "appropriate" for them. Amazingly, they grok appropriate. :)

And no, I don't fear that my teaching them will make them run out and have sex. I think that's ridiculous. Now granted, I have only a statistical sample of one - me - but I knew about sex way before any other kid I knew (I was the one at recess explaining all the confusing things after the obligatory puberty videos in 5th and 6th grade, as I recall)... and I'm also the only person I know who was a virgin when I got married. So my personal data tells me that teaching these things doesn't make you run out and do them.

(Ok, so I made up for it later, but that's far in the TMI category. Everyone should have a past, darnit. :) But better to have the past when you're an adult and have no one to blame but yourself. :) )