My son and daughter are still very young (almost 7 and 4)but they know the basics. They know what a penis is and what a vagina is. They know what sperm and eggs are. They know that a fetus resides in a woman's uterus until it is born. They know all this because they asked when I was pregnant with my third child. (He passed away due to prematurity). I do not lie to my kids and say the stork brings mommies and daddies babies. I tell them as much as they wish to know, and on a level they can understand. They both know that sex CAN make babies. Some people will say I am oversexualizing my children, but I was taught exactly as they were. And I held off until I was 17 (still young, but its better than some, plus the man I lost my virginity to has been my only partner and now my husband.) My children will always have their questions answered. I feel the best way to teach children about sex is to tell them about EVERYTHING, birth control, STD's, pregnancy. EVERYTHING. You cannot stop your child from having sex, but you CAN educate them so they make better decisions. I will always stress the importance of weighing potential consequences over actions. My children will be taught that it is best to save it for a meaningful person and that once you lose it, its gone forever, but to always protect themselves and be good judges of character. My doors will always be open to my children and anything they wish to speak to me about, they can. Children (and teens)these days are so afraid to talk to their parents these days. Part of it is due to the stigma of pressuring them one way or the other. They have their peers pressuring them to do one thing, their parents threatening them NOT to do it or else. Yes, by all means, try to discourage any activity that may be detrimental to your child, but DON'T yell in their faces, or threaten them with a swift kick out the door. TEACH THEM. Tell them the pros and cons. Don't tell them not to engage in a certian activity, they will do it if they want anyway. Tell them what engaging in a certain activity can do to them, their family, their social status, the law. Explain to them that while you can never make a decision for them, you are here to guide them to make the RIGHT decisions. That is why I disagree with abstinence only education. Kids will do what they want and unless you lock them in their rooms, they can always find a way around your rules. By teaching about STD's, birth control, pregnancy, abstaining (the importance of it), financial and social responsibilities, and how sex can make you look to other people, you can help guide them to make the right decisions. Just because a parent teaches about birth control DOES NOT mean they are okay with their kid having sex. I always say that I would rather my child NOT have sex, but if it happens, at least they will know about SAFE sex and they will know the consequences of it (including potential health risks as well as how it can impact how their peers might see them)and hopefully I have taught them well enough that if they choose to have sex, they will be protected.

I think it should be taught to any school age child, maybe not the hardcore stuff till later but I think they should have an understanding of gentalia.

I think the best way to apporach it is to be open, not close off a bridge to communication with your children. I would tell my children sex is normal, in that statement I have neither it is right or wrong.

I would teach my children confidence,standards, self-respect and that they never have do anything, alot of times its peer pressure.

This is a good policy and I do agree... I hope I can one day have that open door policy with my child...I was raised in a religious household and sex is sort of just not talked about(besides that one talk we had)...I guess I just don't want my kid having sex or fooling around at 13 years old...at 13 i was still having sleep overs with the girls and boys had cooties...I just dont want my child growing up too fast...I dont want to provide them with birth control and send the message that its ok to have sex but at the same time I don't feel I should deny it if they are TRYING to be safe...my mom did ask me once a good while back if I needed b.c. I think I was 16...and now that I look back on it I think that was so long ago and I was so young..I cant even believe she asked me..of course at the time I made the decision that sex wasn't going to happen any time soon...its good you're open with your children however idk that I'll be teaching my kids about sex at that age lol...i want to keep them as innocent and naive for as long as possible lol..is that selfish?

there is a difference between being innocent and being naive. naivete can land you in trouble because it is akin to ignorance and being knowledgable doesn't make you guilty of anything.

i think i know what you are saying though. you just want to wait until they are a little older. i think you can wait as long as they have some kind of vocabulary for their parts so they can call them something and that you know what they mean. it's important for them to be able to communicate about their bodies.

My kids are not tainted by facts. They are still innocent. They don't go telling their friends all about it. Any question they have, I will answer, and as I stated above, I answer at their level. They know the basics now. They know girls have vaginas and boys have penises and a sperm and egg make a baby and a baby lives in the uterus. They don't know about birth control or all the gory STD stuff. They know the basics. They are still very innocent. Teaching your kids facts does not taint their minds, it just teaches them that they can come to you for any question they have and you will give them sound answers.

i guess i feel thats too young for them to understand anyway..at 4 and 7 correct? so why bother with the details if they wont understand anyway? i was never lied to..my parents never told me about storks or whatever but i'm sure if i asked where my baby brother came from when i was 4 my parents would have sort of shrugged it off bc at that age its unimportant...girls had "tu tus" and boys had "pee pees" thats what we called it at my house haha at a young age..until 5th grade sex never really came up anyway and it only came up then because of class

My oldest is 4 and I don't think it is too young but I think you also need to apporach it from their level of comprehension. Nothing is unimportant at any age, you can't use age to define the maturity or comprehension of a child/teen, they usually catch on alot quicker than you think. If you talk to a child as a child, you may be prohibiting them or denying them the right to progress, how often many kids are above their level and parent talk to them a certain way.

I don't think it's too young to talk about it either. I want my daughter to have a way of talking to me about her body. I was touched inappropriately by older kids when I was very small and I had no idea what was going on, I just knew it made me feel awful and I had no way of talking about it with my mom. If she had talked to me gently and calmly about it beforehand I would have felt comfortable coming to her knowing I wasn't being bad and that they were doing something wrong to me not the other way around. Kids who have knowledge can maintain their innocence longer because you are better able to protect them if they know they can come to you and they are armed with the vocabulary to talk about it with you. I am going to make sure my daughter can name her body parts and know that they belong to her and her only, and that if anyone violates that she can come to me and I will protect her, not get angry at her.

I would like to practice the knowledge policy. My son is only 8 months old so I know it will be awhile. But I do have 5 siblings and I have always talked to them about sex. Basically as I learned I told them. We were raised with the idea that sex is dirty and oral sex is even worse. We were taught not to masterbate either. So the 1st boy that showed me attention I fell for. I didn’t know about STD’s or even know to care if I got pregnant. Luckily I didn’t get pregnant. However I got herpes at 15 from an older man who was 23. Now I cant blame all my actions on being naïve. But I do feel that if I had more knowledge about my body and the sexual urges I experienced I may have made wiser choices. Other kids are mean. I would rather have my child feel comfortable about sex and masturbation than to be humiliated at school and with his friends like I was. Or be made to feel shame and guilt later in life because mom and dad didn’t want to deal with it.

You know what I think is sad; nowadays, kids can access pornography so easily on the internet and a lot of them are getting a so called "sexual education" from that source. The problem with that is that pornography is so skewed and inaccurate and unrealistic. While young people may look at it and say to themselves "this shows everything", the truth is it is very artificial and one dimensional, not to mention unhealthy. Kids need to learn that sex and feelings and responsibilities and relationships are all intertwined and so complicated, and they wouldn't learn that from the fantasy world of porn. I think it's a really unhealthy example for young people but it is also completely accessible to them via the internet. It may be safer than experimenting themselves, but the messages it sends about how men and women relate and the hollowness of the sexual relationships it portrays need to be counteracted by the wisdom and love of parents who talk to their kids about the realities. It's just another thing parent's have to be wise about nowadays.