PlayIsTheWork.com

No silly, not with your partner but with your kids. I came across this piece earlier today and being a Jewish mom I found it pretty interesting…

Ask The Rabbis
When and how should Jewish parents discuss sex with their children?

The classic story: A little boy comes to his mother and says, “Where did I come from?” She gets flustered and nervous, but manages to give him a brief lesson in sex education. But the answer doesn’t satisfy the boy. He asks again, “But where do I come from—you know, where was I born?” “Cleveland” or “Boston” or wherever, was the answer he was looking for. It would have saved the mother considerable anguish had she figured out what he really wanted to know.

Parents should start discussing sex with their children when the child shows interest in learning about it. Each child has his or her own timetable. Parents are rarely the ones who need to start the discussion; children invariably take the lead. Parents ought to welcome and encourage their children’s curiosity, and give honest, direct, age-appropriate answers. They also don’t need to get ahead of themselves. Children usually just want simple responses. But not to worry: in due time, they’ll come back and ask for more.

Just the other day, my son, five, and his peers asked their teacher how babies were made. She immediately showed them pictures of embryos growing in a mother’s uterus. Apparently nobody asked how the sperm and the egg met up in the first place. But when the question comes up, we’ll be ready for it. Meanwhile, though, the teacher reported that the kids “made the connection that only a man and a woman can technically make a baby, which sparked a subsequent conversation about how same-sex parents have babies,” leading to even more talk about adoption and surrogate mothers. What a great teaching moment—all instigated by the children!

Rabbi Peter H. Schweitzer
The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism,
New York, New York

Posted on December 8th, 2006 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized