Happy International Sex Ed Day!
In just 10 minutes, you can set yourself up as the askable parent your child needs.
Just three years ago, Kim Cook — health educator and founder of the Sex Education Alliance — launched International Sex Education Day, an initiative meant to encourage parents and other caregivers to start conversations with their kids around sex and relationships. ISED is now an annual event that takes place on February 2, and Cook continues to use the day to encourage parents to begin these essential dialogues with their kids… even if only for 10 minutes.
I love this. I love how ISED takes something that seems insurmountable — “the Sex Talk” — and turns it into a small, easily attainable action step. Because no matter how old your kids are, it’s never too late to start that conversation.
The ISED site has some great tips for how to support sex education. For parents:
set aside just 10 minutes to talk to your kids about sex using age-appropriate language
share an age-appropriate book about sexuality with your child
plan to talk more about the topic going forward
support comprehensive sex ed in your local school district
The site also offers a series of video tips from a variety of sex educators, including one from me, which features my forehead, my questionable eyeshadow choices, and my usual tip about reacting with openness and honesty to your kids’ questions.
Have you talked to your kids about sex yet? I hope International Sex Education Day (and the resources on the site) give you the courage you need to kick off that conversation.
And if you’re looking for more advice? Leave your questions in the comments below! ;) If it’s one I see often, I may tackle your question in a future issue of this newsletter.
Good luck out there!
Full Disclosure: Sex Ed in the News
This post by Jessica Valenti on how opening our kids’ eyes up to sexism makes it impossible for them to ignore broke my heart.
A new study in Sexuality Research and Social Policy highlights the need for comprehensive sex ed programming that addresses gender and power.
And this one explores the role of comprehensive sex ed in preventing intimate partner violence among young people. In short: Pretty please support comprehensive sex ed?
Leah Jewett of Outspoken Sex Ed wrote this great post on talking to your kids about vulvas and vaginas.
And this last one is from me. For Rewire News Group, I compared and contrasted two different sets of sex ed standards and argued for the importance of early childhood sex ed.
My Favorite New Sex Ed Resource
Melissa Pintor Carnagey’s Sex Positive Families is moving their community to The Mighty Network, where they’ll be offering members live Q+As, master classes with leading sexuality experts, live chats and book readings with guest authors, asynchronous courses on sex-positive parenting, and more.
Melissa is so generous with their knowledge and has a genuine enthusiasm for talking to kids about sexuality, helping them grow into people who are secure in themselves and in their relationships. To learn more about Melissa, you can check out this Sex Educator Spotlight from May.
I have no doubt that the SPF Community will be amazing.
What’s New with Guerrilla Sex Ed
Aside from the resource database, which is always being updated, I’ve been playing around with the design of the site to make it even easier for you to navigate toward different resource types.