Thursday, August 19, 2010

Fun with sex ed

Caitlin has been invited to an Interrelate seminar at the school titled "Preparing for Puberty" during which I gather we will sit in the hall with other Year 5 and 6 kids and pretend we aren't there to talk about vaginas and penises. Actually, I'm sure it'll be great, and I'm totally going to make sure that the discussion of menstruation includes mention of menstrual cups, cloth pads and sponges and not just disposable pads and tampons.

There's an earlier session for Years 3 & 4 about the whole pregnancy and foetal development thing which is on at the same time as my singing lesson so I asked Tom if he thought he understood enough about where babies come from. He claimed he didn't know very much but then launched into a retelling of the conception scenes from The Human Body and looked set to take me all the way through to birth so I think he's got the biology basics pretty clear.

In the middle of Tom's enthusiastic explanation of the hostile environment met by sperm in the vagina David walked in and asked why we were bothering with the Interrelate session. I said it was because Tom and Cait were interested and that it was good to learn stuff from reliable sources. I then launched into a speech I've had prepared for some time in which I emphasised that if any of the kids ever have any questions about sex, or sexuality or sexual health that they can always feel free to ask me but also that if they don't want to ask me they should go to another reliable source such as Scarleteen.com.

Caitlin: What about if it's boy's questions?

Me: You can still ask me those, or get answers from Scarleteen.

Cait: But what about Dad, isn't he a reliable source?

Me: Yes, of course you can ask him, he's very reliable.

Caitlin: If you can get him to stop being silly.

Me: I'm pretty sure if you ask him about sex he'll get very serious very quickly.

Tom: Of course Dad is a reliable source

Me: Oh?

Tom: Because he's DONE IT! Three times.

Me: LOL Excuse me, I have to go blog this!

(Yes, I will correct the misapprehension, but maybe not right now, he is only 8 years old after all.)

16 comments:

Di said...

BRILLIANT!

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha. Very funny thing for Tom to say.

Yes, I will be there too..... only learned of sponges about 6 months ago, and wish oh wish I knew earlier. They are fabulous.

mimbles said...

I know! I feel so cheated, all those years I could have been using a menstrual cup but knew nothing about them. I love my Diva cup so very much - got it earlier this year.

Anonymous said...

I can't wear a cup,,,, just ain't the same down below since birthing! The sponge is so amazing though..... I have sea life helping me out! :) Peoples eyes pop out when I tell them all about it...

mimbles said...

Yeah, I kind of held my breath hoping the cup would be ok for me, I know a couple of people with the same experience as you - which is how I know about sponges :-)

Anonymous said...

How do you find most people respond? My doctor even had an eye popping moment... she'd never heard of it EVER..the sponges. I've yet to find another fellow sponge user, but they must be out there :)

 Aphie said...

Ahaha! I laughed so hard I started to cough! XD

mimbles said...

I haven't really had many conversations with people who didn't already know about the cup, and very few conversations about it off-line at all. My mum was pretty amazed that she'd never heard of it, I haven't mentioned it to my doctor, could be fun to see how he'd react!

mimbles said...

Btw, you realise I'm going to spend the entire Interrelate seminar wondering who my mystery commenter is, don't you? :-)

Penny said...

Buahahahaha!! Yep, 3 times a winner.
With the IUD I have I don't have any need for pads etc but before that I used a cup and loved it. So much less waste, mess and general blah. Took a bit of getting used to at first, but soon became not a problem.

Mrs4444 said...

THAT is hilarious. I love it :)

Susan said...

Priceless! Hee.:)

Nickie said...

lol...that's priceless!!! Great Saturday Sampling!!!

Sharon Cohen said...

Priceless post for Saturday Sampling. I think you should print this post and present it to him when he's a little more hormonal or right before his honeymoon. I suppose he'll want to change that "three" to a bigger number.

Emily said...

3 kids = 3 times, makes perfect sense to me! I don't know if it's the Australian/American thing but I'm not too up on cups, cloth pads and sponges. Maybe I need to attend a seminar.

Kristin - The Goat said...

My mom sat me down with a whole library of books and asked me to read them. I don't think I would have ever asked my Dad about sex. Not even a little. It's nice that you can discuss.

Funny post - so glad you linked up to Saturday Sampling.

Kristin - The Goat