and then I found her like this, outside in her jammies drawing with her goggles on.
Never a dull moment with this girl around.
Anyway, naturally Megan's comment got me thinking about how and when to teach my girls about the birds and the bees as Bella and Tess both chimed in trying to correct Megan. Have any of you heard about these books? I have been told by a couple of friends that they're excellent, age appropriate, and a great way to venture into the subject. I keep waiting to talk with them about, you know, hoping they will ask (so then I will know they're ready), but no one has and I wonder if I should be the one to bring it up. I mean I know I should. Bella is going into fourth grade and I'm not quite sure what she knows from kids at school, but I know I want to be the one to tell her.
Anyway, just wondered who was dealing with this at home? If you've brought it up. Had the talk? How was it received?
13 comments:
Mya has been saying china lately as well. Goggles and drawing ...hilarious. I so wish we lived closer to you.
We bought that book for Luci. Some of it was a little more than I wanted her to know (like about erections) but then I'd rather me read with her than her pick up misinformation from peers. I have heard the American Girl books about the body are good too but I haven't bought those yet. There is one about feelings that I want to get her as well.
I am a lurker on your blog...
And your daughter's comment is just priceless! Darling!
I talked with my daughter about it when she was in 4th grade. She's quite mature, and was asking some questions, so she and I talked about it after I had her read "The Care and Keeping of You". It's a great book and talks about the changes in your body and how to take care of everything from hair, to when you get your period. We talked a little bit about sex, but not a ton.
It was not my favorite conversation I've ever had with my kid, but I was really glad that I did it before she started hearing more from friends...
Good luck!
Tell me what you do, I wouldn't think I would be so nervous. With Evie going to school next year, and venturing out to play at other kids houses I feel like we need to have the "good touch/bad touch" talk. As she was walking out the door with Dave's parents last week I thought "we never talked." I know she will be safe with them, but about the kids her cousins will play with, etc.etc.etc... The crazy thing is that for 10 years I worked with kids who had been sexually abused and at-risk kids and I was SHOCKED that most of their parents had NEVER talked to them about any of it. It was my job to do it, and I could, calmly and without embarrasment. Now its my daughter and I want the pediatrician to do it! We will definately have the talk soon. We drill it into their heads to be polite, so it goes against everything we have told them. Anyway, a little off topic. But please report back!
BTW, Evie says vagina, it was one of her earlier words. Dave believes in anatomical names for anitomical parts :)
Well, I have all boys. I know that we had the 'movie' in 4th grade so it was important to have a talk with these littles before they watched the movie. I, too, wanted to be the one (or my husband!) to tell them.
And, for the record - when we lived in Texas and one of my little was to watch 'the' movie in 6th grade I previewed it with a friend of mine. We were so shocked at what was in the movie that we surprised our littles the next day by keeping them home and taking them to the new Harry Potter movie. They never knew why we did that... :-)
CHINA cracked me up! Good luck! I remember Barb visited here and being in the car with her and Kelly. She was telling Kelly some great things how she approaches the topic. Email her -
That's hilarious, both her comment and her goggle-look.
Meg is so funny- I love it!
We try to talk about things as they come up and my kids know proper names for things and we've had the good touch/bad touch talk many times... but as far as THE big talk my kids haven't asked so I feel we need to initiate it with A very soon. I don't want my kids getting mixed up facts from other kids.
We've been studying up and getting ready for A's big talk, but the move really threw us off our plan. I have a couple books I've bought already (one by Brad Wilcox and one by Linda & Richard Eyre) but that one looks good too. You can borrow mine if you want to have a look.
Go for it. It is one of my favorite parenting moments. I only have one child left to go, and I'll probably bring it up soon.
I have an LDS friend who is excellent at handling the subject of sexuality with her children. She has all boys. From a very young age, she has always been very open with her boys. When her youngest was three or four and finally becoming aware of the difference between women and men he casually tried to touch her chest. She simply said, "Oh, no. That is a very special place. Only daddy can touch me there." She left it at that. Through out the years whenever her sons would be curious about something she'd give them a simple answer. Most of the time their curiousity was no deeper than a one question thing. I think the calmer and more comfortable you are the healthier your children's understanding will be of sexuality.
Bottomline: take multiple opportunities whenever the subject is brought up to speak openly and BRIEFLY about it so you don't feel like you have to give "the talk" to them one day. That could be overwhelming for a kid and parent.
This is too funny! I had to share this post with my husband and it got him chuckling. Kids are hilarious and I can't tell you how many times my kids have repeated something in such a way that revealed they had heard incorrectly and were improvising according to their own understanding. The result is always amusing.
I like Annie's advice.
Such an important topic and one that I LOOOVE so much that I actually created a blog about it. One of the posts I added on the blog was THE conversation I had with my 7 year old. It was one of THE BEST conversations we've ever had! It brought us so close. I am a big believer in teaching young and in VERY simple ways. Annie's advice rang true. Maybe the blog will be helpful. Maybe not... good luck.
The blog address is: www.solidmarriage.blogspot.com
P.S....the post on the blog with our conversation is titled "Miss Rain's moment of Truth".
My sweet Carly, who is 9 and entering 4th grade too, had been asking so many questions that I knew we needed to sit down and have an indepth conversation. We had it last summer. It was a wonderful conversation for us too. We used "It isn't the Stork" for the initial conversation. I thought it was nice for prompting conversation. Just this week we started reading "Care and Keeping of You" {by American Girl} and it is really nice talking about girls bodies, puberty, hormones {which we are seeing at our house}.
I also love the fact that I can now reinforce our beliefs about things like teenagers making very poor choices about sex rather than trying to shield her constantly. And, Carly is very inquisitive and she was ready to know. I think she would have started discussing it with other kids trying to figure it out. I'm glad we strengthened our bond by having the conversation and stressing that I WANTED her to talk to me & ask questions.
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