Sex education thanks to Eric Carle

I was all excited when the kids chose Eric Carle's "Draw me a Star" for their bedtime story until I got to the part where the man and woman were drawn, naked of course, at which point all hell broke loose. 

"I can see her vagina!" Margot giggled. 

"That it so yucky!" my son said, pointing the the shape of the man's penis which really looked like a small, sharp triangle dangling between his legs.

Dangerous, perhaps. But not yucky. 

So, I took a deep breath, gave the warning look to my husband which generally says "pop the ear plugs in because I might say the word 'testicles' around the children" and began my longwinded discussion about body parts and how they're not yucky, just private and personal, which is why we might feel uncomfortable or embarrassed seeing them in a book. 

"YUCKY!" my son screamed.

All the kids giggled, except Quinlan, who reminded everyone from high atop her bunkbed that artists paint people naked all the time and it's not disgusting or weird. 

At least ONE child listens to me while I'm standing up on my soapbox. 

For as much as sexuality and nakedness freaked out my parents and therefore freaked me out, I'm trying to do the complete opposite with my own kids, not so that they'll become flashers or sex maniacs which does not happen when you talk openly and honestly with kids about sex HEAR THAT RIGHT WING CONSERVATIVES, but that they'll feel comfortable in their own skin.

From what I can tell, sex and nudity are not the root of all evil, or really any evil for that matter, and the more informed my kids can be the better prepared they will be to survive and function in a society that has some pretty fucked up views about sex. 

If only they held the same views about violence. 

The way I see it, I can leave their sex education up to society and its fucked up views or I can do it myself. Or at least, pawn the hard stuff off to my husband, who unsuccessfully tried to escape with some excuse about making school lunches. 

"What's that dwarf's name, mom?" Drew asked, after we had moved onto Snow White.

"Bashful" I said. "Which means embarrassed, like how you felt when you saw the naked people in the other book."

He smiled, then asked "Why did the mother send that man to kill her daughter?"  

I sighed. 

"So, anything else you want to ask me about those naked people..." 

Comments

[jeanieinparadise]

I have tried very hard to be upfront also - but I am met with a child that resolutely puts her fingers in her ears, sings "la la la la la" and assures me she will read about it in a book and I can go now.

[Karen]

We've been up front, too. We told Girl: "Listen - you're going to hear and see a bunch of stuff in the coming years. We're telling you about it now and giving you the straight answer truth because we want you to have CORRECT information."

[Aimee Giese]

Word.