Be
Honest With Information
Both teenage girls and boys go through a
period of physical and emotional awkwardness.
At this stage, girls need
to have menstrual cycles, hair growth in the armpits and pubic area, the
widening of their hips and the change in the pigmentation of the skin all
explained to them.
Boys need to be spoken to about the changes in
their voices, about nocturnal emissions, which they will know as ‘wet
dreams’, and the rapid development of their sexual organs.
Get
them a good book on sex education, which can be read in private. Back it up, if
you can, with casual chats that do not appear to have been engineered. Deliver
the information in small, well-spaced and timed discussions rather than in one
big solemn lecture.
It is perfectly normal to feel uncomfortable
about it all, but considering the options (sleazy
films, cheap porno books, uninformed friends, and porn on the Internet) might
help you quickly get over the discomfort. But if you just cannot bring yourself
to do this, enlist the help of another adult — someone too young to be
seen as a parent figure but old enough to know what to say. It is also
absolutely necessary for youngsters to be made aware of the hazards of
unprotected sex — pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases,including
the dreaded AIDS.
Explain to your kids that delaying sexual relations
till they are mature enough and sure of their feelings for their partner, is
definitely a good idea and that it, in no way, undermines their sexual
identity.
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