"An impromptu inspection of my oldest son's phone revealed some shocking information: He has started dating. While my wife and I were both delighted to find out our 12-year-old was growing up and exploring the dating pool, it also made us both realize how negligent we had been about keeping up with health and sex education. That's when we immediately sat him down for "The Talk" - the sex talk."
"I put off the sex talk for so long I think I neglected sex education for two main reasons. First, my son only recently started showing interest in dating. One day, he's covering his eyes and groaning when actors kiss in movies and shows, and the next, he's dating a girl. We had assumed the change would arrive gradually, and instead, like so many parents, we were ambushed by puberty."
"Secondly, memories of my own sex education were making me unsure about how to handle my current situation as a parent. My mother was a nurse, so sex education was delivered by way of awkward health videos, lectures, and books that broke down the intermingling of human anatomy with bland drawings. I also spent a lot of time with my church's youth group and was exposed to abstinence-only material."
A father discovered his 12-year-old son was dating and realized the family had neglected health and sex education. The parents held an immediate, frank conversation about sex at the kitchen table. The father had delayed the talk because the son's interest seemed to appear suddenly and because the father's own sex education had been awkward and abstinence-focused. Church-based abstinence messaging and clinical materials emphasized delayed sex but left practical concerns unaddressed. The father recognized that abstinence-only education omitted information about pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and the social and emotional challenges that accompany adolescent sexual activity.
Read at Business Insider
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