Did you know May was Sex Ed for All Month? (#sexedforallmonth!) Since 2019, May has been marked as a month during which educators and advocates make an extra effort to ask for folks’ investment in quality sex ed in both schools and communities across the country. I love this, but I also obviously believe that sex ed is something we should be investing in every day of the year.
Luckily, I’m pretty sure most of you are doing so already, whether you realize it or not.
Every time we teach our kids to love their bodies, nose to toes, we’re engaging in sex ed.
Every time our kids ask us about our bras… our periods… that whole babymaking thing… and we don’t brush them off, that’s sex ed.
Every time we teach our kids to compromise, or to ask permission, or to set boundaries, or to honor the boundaries of others, that’s sex ed.
And when they observe us living our lives, managing our relationships to our bodies and to each other? That’s sex ed, too. Because even when we don’t mean to teach them anything, we’re doing so anyway.
They learn something from everything we do. Everything we say. Every reaction we have.
The trick, as Lauren Barineau of Talk More pointed out to me in a chat we had the other week, is being intentional about it.
But I know how hard that can be, which is why I’m hoping to help educators help you do it even better.
Later this summer, I’m giving a presentation to sex educators on how they can work with parents and other caregivers to make these conversations with their kiddos easier and more effective. (More info on that to come in a later newsletter.) To make this presentation as useful as possible, I’m gathering input from parents on their own experiences with at-home sex ed, and I’m highlighting the work of educators already working in this space.
If you're a parent or other caregiver, I'd love to know more about what you struggle with most when talking about sex and bodies and boundaries with your kids, and what you feel you need to succeed in these discussions.
If you're up to it, I would appreciate you filling out this survey.
Responses are anonymous, though if you'd prefer chatting in real-time about the topic, you can always reach out to me.
If you're an educator who is tasked with teaching some form of sex or health education, I'd love to know more about how you engage parents and other caregivers in the process.
There's a survey for you right here.
For those of you who have already filled out one of my surveys: I love you. 😘
Happy belated Sex Ed for All month, everyone. I appreciate everything you do to make sure kids have the info they need to be the most rad humans they can be.
Full Disclosure: Sex Ed in the News
According to an exclusive Parents magazine survey of 1,500 caregivers, 70% of parents want better sex ed for their kids. This is good news.
Sex Ed for All Month used to be Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, until a group of scrappy young mothers transformed the stigmatized way we think and talk about teen pregnancy. I love this story.
Cartoonist Pan Cooke was inspired by a book banning post by Danika Ellis over at Book Riot (full disclosure: I’m a senior contributor there) and adapted it into this multi-panel comic that made me ugly-cry.
My Favorite New Sex Ed Resources
In my nearly nine years as a parent, I’ve leaned heavily on books by Deborah Roffman, Debra Haffner, and others who aim to demystify “the sex talk” for parents. Now there’s a new title to add to the list. Laura Hancock Ph.D. and Karen Rayne Ph.D.’s Sex Ed for the Stroller Set shows how to provide essential information about sexuality, bodies, and behavior to kids under the age of 6. The book is out in August, but you can preorder it now.
The folks behind Vaginas and Periods 101: A Pop-Up Book (a title I love) recently got enough funding to launch Colors of You, a book that’s aimed at educators, but which contains modifications in its sex ed lesson plans that allow parents to use it, too.
In honor of Sex Ed for All Month, the folks at SIECUS put together this document containing 10 ways to get involved in sex ed advocacy.
A friend recently shared with me the work of sex ed advisor Kathleen Hema, whose Instagram feed is pure gold. Here’s a recent reel about the internal and external reactions one might have if their child asked them about birth control.
And these are not new, but I wanted to shout out two of my favorite sex ed email newsletters: Leah Jewitt’s Outspoken Sex Ed helps caregivers use pop culture happenings to kickstart sex ed convos with their kids. And Melissa Pintor Carnagey’s Sex Positive Families newsletter always contains a surplus of goodies, including FAQs from parents, links to educational blog posts and books, info on new courses for parents, and more.