What Your Child Needs to Know About Sex

Book excerpt: If you start talking early enough, kids will listen. FOR MANY PARENTS, the talk is one of the most dreaded rites of passage in the child-raising experience--but it doesn’t have to be. The key is to start early when talking about sex with your child. In Dr. Fred Kaeser’s progressive approach, parents become their child’s first resource for sexual information (instead of ceding control to peers, the school system, or the media) in order to have a lasting and positive influence over their child’s sexual development. As the former director of health in the New York City public schools, there’s nothing Dr. Kaeser hasn’t been asked by kids, or by parents. And he has seen firsthand the results of our increasingly sexualized youth culture, and how it’s making children grow up faster than ever these days. From sexting to cyberbullying, challenges and pressures abound--even for kids in kindergarten. This means that parents must begin laying the groundwork for basic conversations about sex when their child is as young as three years old. Parents then build their discussions on this early foundation, introducing more information at developmentally appropriate ages (for example, talking about puberty with your eight-year-old, and discussing safe sex with your ten-year-old). What Your Child Needs to Know About Sex (and When) goes far beyond the birds and the bees to discuss uncomfortable issues with a winning frankness and empowering attitude. It offers families the tools they need for navigating how and when to have positive dialogues about sexuality and helps parents learn to use everyday teachable moments. Open communication about sex with your children isn’t necessarily easy, but it can be done; this indispensable book will guide you every step of the way.