It’s about
that time that my daughter and I had a little talk.
Yep charity’s
not the only thing that should begin at home.
So does sex
education.
I’ve learnt
that the hard way.
Oh it was
innocent enough- My Beloved decided we deserved a break from the constant
bickering that had punctuated our Saturday morning up to that point, so he shut
the bedroom door on the kids saying he wanted 5 minutes alone with mummy to
give her a quiet cuddle. For a change that’s what he actually meant!
Didn’t quite
realize how it sounded to another’s ears until our 6 year old told a caller
that “Mummy can’t come to the phone right now, she’s busy in the bedroom having
a hug with daddy.”
Well, didn’t
my friend give me grief when I got hold of the handset?!
I really
don’t know who was more embarrassed or amused when Miss V knocked on the
bedroom door to pass the telephone over and I was greeted with giggles from my
friend, followed finally by an explanation of the mirth (also the background
comments from said friend’s husband that Fathers’ Day was still weeks away and
was he getting an early gift). It wasn’t like that at all. (Heaven knows we
have learnt to schedule those sessions for when we’re least likely to get
interrupted i.e. when kids aren’t home!)
But with our
son now approaching the age where school sessions are scheduled to ensure the
information is delivered in a factual and fun way (whatever that means), it
means that the adults in the house are having “that” discussion about whether
the children are really ready for it.
Here’s the
thing. We’ve never used euphemisms or silly nicknames for body parts- we’re
both big on calling a spade a spade (or whatever’s the relevant term for the
item in question)- and have discovered real issues when our offspring bring
home titles like “willy”, weener”, “doodle”, “family jewels”, and “front
bottom”. (Front bottom? Seriously, what is up with that??) And I’ve even had to have a quiet chat with
my son at the request of another mother that terms like “balls” are really not
appropriate to use in conversation with girls in the classroom.Unless it's in the context of sport.
♫Awwk-waaard. ♫
I have to say
though, that the very thought of having to sit down and have “The Talk” with my
daughter immediately brings up memories of my mother attempting to do the same
with me as a child. Being the youngest of three girls in an all-female
household, there wasn’t a lot left to the imagination (think nudie runs from
bathroom to bedroom simply to keep the schedule of all those women in a
one-bathroom house), and of course we
were exposed to the schoolyard discussions of what’s under other’s clothes or
the private stuff that goes on in two-parent families. Ours didn’t exactly fit
the perfect model of mum-dad- and-the-kids, my sisters and I never had the
opportunity to accidentally expose what really goes on in the marital bed (and
both my therapist and I thank our lucky stars every day for that, just quietly)
so mum had some explaining to do.
I distinctly
remember the extreme embarrassment mum and I felt when she took me into her
room, brought out the tried and trusty copy of the puberty book (you know, I
can’t for the life of me remember the name of it, only that it had a garish
yellow cover– must have blocked that one out as a painful memory!) and sat me
down and started to read. I still shudder at the thought of my mother nodding
wisely at the advice that relations between a man and a woman are a special
thing given by God, or words to that effect. I was so innocent and embarrassed
that I couldn’t even come up with a clever comment like “So that’s why people
call out His name?!” at the time.
But we both
survived it relatively intact. And now
it’s my turn. With my little girl who has yet to embrace the fashion and makeup
and all the bling things that others her age are well and truly into.
My turn to
find the appropriate text to take into the bedroom and sit her down for that
chat.
One can only
hope that no one rings at the time or else my son might just tell them I’m unavailable because of
something to do with sex!
Jx
©2010/11
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