As for our own hang ups, I think that goes with a lot of what we’ve been taught about “touchy” subjects: sex, religion, politics, money… I don’t want to imply there is some sort of “conspiracy” here, but rather it sometimes seems that we’ve blacklisted (as a society) all these things we’re NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT. SHHH! No wonder we raise kids that can’t figure it out. And at the end of the day we’ve wrapped these ideas in such grandeur and secrecy — at least some of us have — that yeah, it feels like we’re breaking across some boundary of innocence of childhood.

I think a lot of the problem that adults have with sex education is that they don’t know how to listen to what kids are asking or they see it as somehow prematurely stripping children of their innocence. I’ve adopted the philosophy that if they’re old enough to ask, they’re old enough to get a reasonable answer. I’ve seen people get embarrassed when a kid asks what’s going on when she sees animals mating. To me, that’s a perfect opening for some impersonal discussion of reproduction. If it leads to how babies are made, that’s where the kid needs to go.

People seem to think that talking about sex will turn their children into sexual beings prematurely. But I haven’t seen any evidence to support that. The more time they are given to learn, think and talk about it, the more solidly grounded they will be when it comes time to act on it. But we’ll see how well I do when the time comes to put my philosophy into action. :)