If you are a parent in the 21st century, it is not possible to stay unaffected about sex education and your children. There is a lot of sex and sex related material and scenes that the child is constantly exposed to from a very tender age. Sooner or later, he or she becomes curious and seeks answers to questions relating sex, their own existence and the correlation of animals' birth rituals and their own.



A Critical Parenting Question - Talking about Sex

This is one parenting question that has bothered parents from time immemorial. This is because when you try to explain how children are made, you know that the child will conjure a picture of you and your partner having sex. However, it is true that sex-education should be imparted to the children from a very tender age. What exactly should that tender age be is a controversial parenting question, but some think it should start as early as the child is aware about his body parts.

Sex education is not always about sex. It is, in most cases, about bringing about awareness that the body is sacred and that it totally belongs to the child. Once this basic concept is instilled, then sex education has a solid platform/ foundation to build upon. As the child grows, the function of each part of the body should be explained in simple terms. The aim of this exercise should be to make the child comfortable with the parts of the body and internalize that there is no such thing as 'shameful parts'.

You will find that the most common parenting question here is on how to teach the child about the right and wrong touch. This is one parenting question, which is indeed critical to answer. Research says that children are born with an alarm that usually goes off when things begin to go wrong. What parents should teach their child is to listen to that alarm, and take immediate action when it goes off.

Children are basically shy and respectful of adults. Hence, unless so taught, they might not raise an alarm even when they feel there is something very wrong in the way they are handled. By letting them know that it is not only okay to talk to your parents about anything, it is highly recommended and something that will make their parents be able to ward off the danger and keep them safe.