Browsing Tag: Sex ed

Many years ago when my oldest was about 7 years old she asked me where babies came from.  Knowing that this question would arise some time I had spent quite a bit of time reading books on how to discuss this topic with my children, so I was really prepared.  I told her all of the information I thought was age appropriate but made sure I included enough details so she basically had the information and afterwards I was really proud of myself on how I handled it and had answered her questions easily and just generally did a good job. I felt like I deserved a gold star on my parent chart for that conversation.  Several months later she asked basically the same questions and I was confused.  So I asked her if she remembered the conversation we had before on the same topic and surprisingly she said no.  I’m thinking, “wait a minute, you don’t remember that masterful job of teaching I did?”  So I was a little frustrated but I explained it again and I eventually learned that most topics that parents need to teach their children about need to be taught several times.  Usually there are many conversations that are needed to cover important topics because we learn in small doses.  I do this with General Conference.  A speaker will say something that my brain latches onto and I am no longer listening to what he is saying but thinking about the one thing that struck me.  When I finally tune back in I have missed all of the in between stuff.  Fortunately we have the Ensign to read the talks or can listen to them through media outlets.  Children are the same.  They need to be taught the same thing over and over until it sinks in, and they do better being taught in small doses.  After they have learned one thing well they are ready to learn the next component, and you can usually tell what they are really wanting to know by asking a few questions. So even masterful teaching requires being done over and over again, whether it is the birds and the bees or other things.