Sex education is something that most of us have pretty awkward memories about. We’re talking that one class in PE where you’re all sitting around in gym clothes, boys in one room and girls in another, and you watch a VHS video while your gym teacher awkwardly stands to the side. None of us want to relive that, so why not create a better sex education experience for our kids? If you want to learn how to teach sex education at home and some tips for doing so, keep reading!
If you want the full scoop on how to talk to kids about sex, check out our full UM club Episode with Ariel Saint White from My Little Yoni!
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Start Young
The best way to make sure that we can have open conversations with our kids about sex is to start teaching them at a young age. We’re not saying dive off the deep end with sex ed, but starting to teach your kids accurate anatomy and having them name their body parts is a great way to start!
Teaching sex education in elementary schools is not something we see often, but it can be so helpful to prime our kids for bigger conversations later in life. If we want our kids to come to us with any questions they might have in the future, we need to make sure they feel comfortable talking about this stuff with us.
Keep Conversations Open
When you start teaching sex education to your kids, don’t feel like everything has to be said right away. If they’re really into the conversation and want to keep talking, encourage them! But if they’re not immediately jumping to talk or just don’t seem interested, that’s okay too. Everyone learns at different paces so not all kids are going to be ready right away.
Keeping conversations ongoing means that our kids can ask sex ed questions whenever they want, or pick up on things they were learning about at a different time when they feel more comfortable. This is going to create open communication between you two, and will help with them coming to you in the future.
Want to explore all of our Teaching Kids series? Check out the episodes below!
If you’re interested in learning about more topics that truly impact your life as a busy mom, check out our library of over 50 Unapologetic Mom’s Club Episodes that challenge the way you think, and push you to take action to live a more fulfilled life. Want a sneak peek? Get backdoor access to 10 of our most impactful episodes with our You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know freebie! Click to access 🤩
How to Talk to Kids About Death and Illness with Michelle McVittie
Teaching Kids About Money with CPA Maya Corbic
Teaching Kids Mindfulness with Certified Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Cynthia Arscott
Think About What You Would Have Wanted to Know at Their Age
Conversations about sex don’t have to be massive lessons with charts and examples – sometimes it can just be you answering questions about what body parts are what, or maybe what those body parts do.
Kids are so curious – they love knowing how things work and how things are made. Use that young curiosity to help them learn all of the different things around sex education! Think back to when you were a kid, or even a young teenager about to have sex for the first time – what do you wish you had known? Maybe this is being able to properly name parts of the vulva, or call it a vulva at all. At the end of the day it’s up to you what your kids learn about sex at an early age, so try to teach them the basics before they get into the later stages as teenagers.
Don’t be afraid to alter your original plans
The scene is set: your kid is in prime learning mode, paying attention to everything you say, done with dinner and in a good mood. You start to talk to them about your carefully prepared sex education talk – and they completely lose interest and get cranky. Don’t be discouraged, the best thing when it comes to teaching kids about sex is that it’s something that can be ongoing!
The right moment can strike at any time to pick up on the sex talk with our kids, and it can be something we work into our everyday teachings with our kids. What we want most is to eliminate the shame around sex, so making it a normal topic that our kids can always ask us about is the best thing we can do.
Check Out Ariel and All Her Great Resources!
Still stumped on how to talk to kids about sex? Check out our UM Club episode on how to talk to kids about sex with Ariel Saint White! Ariel is a sex educator who shared so many tips with us that really help open up the sex conversation with our kids.
Ariel is also the founder of My Little Yoni, who she’s dubbed the first vulva superhero! Ariel is so passionate about teaching kids about sex that she created an entire 10 book series called Yoni Magic! These books cover everything from teaching basic anatomy to how babies are made, and are a great teaching tool for parents who are struggling to start that conversation. Make sure to check out Ariel and all her super helpful products!
We’re so happy we could share some tips on how to talk to your kids about sex, and we really hope you check out the full episode with Ariel! Sex education at home does not have to be scary, so we hope you use this post and all our other great episodes to start that conversation and create a safe space to talk to your kids about sex!
Related Articles:
UM Club Episode – Teaching Kids About Sex
Mindfulness for Kids: How to Help Anxiety in Kids and Support Mindfulness
How to Stop Tantrums Before They Happen
How to Teach Consent to a Child – What You Can Do to Prevent Child Sex Abuse
Assertive Communication: How to Get What You Want, With Skill
Best Weekly Allowance For Kids – An allowance rule of thumb
