Teaching the birds & the bees...

[Pandora II]

Other than having 'How A Baby Is Made' in the nursery bookcase since I can ever remember, and a copy of 'The Joy Of Sex' lurking in the sitting room bookcase, my parents pretty much left sex education to school.

I was at boarding school so it was also pretty easy to not discuss anything with my parents. My mother also always seemed to cringe with embarrassment or make me do the same if the subject came up. We all hit puberty later than most - my sisters were around 14 and I was nearly 17 and we were all away at school so my mother wasn't exactly having to deal with young kids going through the menarche.

My father never really said anything till we were much older and he's the one I find easy to talk to things about - helps that he's a GP and so used to dealing with contraception and 'women's issues' etc, even if he did used to embarrass us when we were at university by giving us boxes of flavoured condoms (his office hands them out to teenagers).

Anyway, I would prefer to have a more relaxed relationship with my daughter over such things. Are there good books out there for kids and teens and/or 'how to have the talk' books for parents?

ETA: one of my father's proudest moments was when I won the local Health Authority's 'Design a Packet for Condoms' competition in my final year at Art College!

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

Needing to have the puberty talk a few months ago took me by surprise so I went to my local library to see what they had to help but there wasn't a lot of age appropriate books (daughter was 9) so I don't have any recommendations for the younger years but I am interested to see if anyone else does.

There was one book that I liked and I plan on buying it for my daughter when she is closer to the teenage years. I am not sure if you are familiar with this author but her books on pregnancy and parenting are fairly popular here in Australia as she takes a fairly light hearted and comical approach to the subjects which I liked. The author is Kaz Cooke and the bool is called "girl stuff". Here is a link to the contents page..

http://www.penguin.com.au/girlstuff/default.cfm

Not only does it look at puberty and sex but a whole range of other issues and subjects pertinent to being a teenage girl. There are also links to Excerpts from the book down the right hand side if you want to have a read. The style of writing is different, but I think it is well targeted to teenage girls and I feel that sometimes a little humor can help when dealing with awkward subjects as some of these.
I haven't read the whole book from cover to cover but what I did read I liked. I hope that if my daughter has any questions that she doesn't feel comfortable talking to me about she will be able to find some information in the book and hopefully be able to talk to me about it a bit more once she has the basics.

My mother never talked to me about anything and I never had access to any material to help me either so, i would have loved to have had a book like this so I guess that is why it appeals to me. It might not be your cup of tea or what you are after but I thought I would put it out there anyway.


ETA: the teachers notes in PDF form on the website give some great ideas on discussions to have with your daughter in reference to the book.

 

[Pandora II]

Thanks for the link!

It looks like a really fun book - made me laugh anyway!

I'm going to send a link to my sister as well - her daughter is only 6, but they and the rest of the family is moving to Brisbane in March (my sister is wondering if there are still any house to rent...). My BIL is a hydro-geologist - specialising in getting water out of mines - so I guess he's picked a good place to move to right now! I hope things are looking better for everyone in QL.

 

[Echidna]

I love the Kaz Cook too! I haven't seen her puberty book (too late for me!) but she's wrote a pregnancy book called "Up the Duff" and it's hilarious.

Pandora, to pick up on your comment, the rental market in Brisbane is now completely squeezed. A lot of flood victims have had to relocate while their homes are being rebuilt. My sister was looking for a rental during the flood and had a number of applications turned down because she wasn't a flood victim. She understood the sentiment but she still needed somewhere to live! Your sister and her family might have to live somewhere a little less than ideal for 6 months or so until vacancies return to normal.

 

[Pandora II]

I love the Kaz Cook too! I haven't seen her puberty book (too late for me!) but she's wrote a pregnancy book called "Up the Duff" and it's hilarious.

Pandora, to pick up on your comment, the rental market in Brisbane is now completely squeezed. A lot of flood victims have had to relocate while their homes are being rebuilt. My sister was looking for a rental during the flood and had a number of applications turned down because she wasn't a flood victim. She understood the sentiment but she still needed somewhere to live! Your sister and her family might have to live somewhere a little less than ideal for 6 months or so until vacancies return to normal.

I wondered if that was the case. I know her husband's company are giving them accommodation for the first 6 weeks so that is something. They met while both were working in Bangladesh so 'less than ideal' isn't a problem except in the sense of having a new-born baby and wanting to get their other two settled into schools etc. They'd rather rent something not great in the right area than somewhere ideal in the wrong one for schools, work etc if that makes sense.