The International Planned Parenthood released a recommendation that children as young as ten years old should be taught “the pleasures of sex.” They did not mean the mechanics of sex, but how to enjoy it!
At the age of ten, a child is still very much a concrete-thinker. Abstract thinking begins to trickle in around age thirteen and takes the rest of the teen years to fully evolve. Concrete-thinkers are still absorbing what is told to them and are not able to filter nor understand adult concepts.
To burden a fifth-grader with the idea of sexual gratification at such a crucial development time is outright abusive. Why would anyone want to infuse a formative mind with something so controversial and devalue the true meaning of sex? The manipulative reason behind this surely has to be to encourage the financial profits in an industry that includes birth control and abortion available without parental consent in many states. This would retrain impressionable minds to become numb to something God-given, pure and beautiful and remove it's incredible value by turning it into a mere function or some kind of "right".
We can't teach kids the how before the why.
This issue will continue to challenge parents as our culture continues to water down the sacred. What do parents want to be considered special in their children’s lives? Will it be something moral or something material? Are all “special” things equal or are some so precious they should be reserved for...marriage?
Our obligation as parents is to teach our children the difference between purity and sex. Thanks to a world leader, a generation of kids now believe they can have oral sex and that their purity is not compromised. They still haven't really had sex, or have they?
Our kids need to know the why behind our reasoning when we tell them to wait until they are married to consummate their love. If we just say “don’t” and fail to give them a why, they won’t have anything to anchor the "don't" on. Let's tell our kids that the why is centered on knowing God - His perfect desire for our lives and therefore what we do with our bodies, with whom and the big "when".
My philosophy is to make sex education a natural, on-going process based upon our parent-child relationship. There is no single “big talk” but hundreds of little ones starting as soon as they can talk. Additional elements are introduced based on maturity. And at the right moment, you bet my kids know that it’s fun and feels good. But before they find out about that, they’ve been taught why God cares, how their body develops and what they can expect.
Communicating the truth about sex is probably the most important topic (aside from faith) on a parent's job description. It will impact futures and the lives of others – depending on what the kids understand and how they respond.
My favorite book that coaches parents on this topic is Dr. Kevin Leman's A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex. If you have a child, don't wait to read it. Read it when they're little and re-read as they grow. That pituitary gland gets into gear as young as second grade!
P.S. One of my favorite parenting workshops to lead is all about getting ready for adolescence and targets parents of kids second grade and up
So glad I homeschool. It's not nore ever should be up to the schools when and how my children learn about sex!
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