Talking to children about the opposite sex

[marco25]

Help. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

My little girl! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

Funny thing, she's asking ME to help HER understand boys! LOL. I could only be honest and tell her that I was new to this stuff too, and we'd just have to learn together.

"You mean you still LIKE guys?" she asked horrified.

"Yeah, I do," I said smiling.

"You think about them ALL the time, Mom? Cuz I do."

http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

"Uh, well, maybe not ALL the time, but they can be pretty distracting."

"I like boys, Mom. I mean I REALLY like them, for like 6 years now, I think about them all the time!"

OMG. Get thee to a nunnery. Get thee to an all girls school. Get thee on birth control.... Get me another glass of wine!

Actually we had a wonderful discussion, lots of giggles and laughter. I told her to be patient with boys--she and I are both NOW kinda women. We also talked a lot about respect. Treating boys and yourself with respect or treating them the way you'd want to be treated.

Of course we've been talking about sex and boys for a long time, and actually that's the easy part. It's this nitty-gritty, devil-in-the-details stuff that makes me a wreck. I'm hardly an expert, and I'm painfully aware of it. Don't want to pass the curse on to my daughter.

Any advice or guidance out there?

[This message was edited by martha2 on 07-08-04 at 08:29 AM.]

[betheny]

I'd tell her to look out for them. I'd give her the birth control shot in her sleep. I'd chain her to a tree and build a house around it.

Now we know why God gave Beth all boys. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Seriously, emphasize the self-respect, that she is precious and needs to be treated that way. Daughters of divorced parents are at such risk of attention-seeking, it is such a curse. I'd tell her that boys are people too, but that they are driven by different motives sometimes. I love my boys, but they are predators at heart, I swear. And they are completely average that way, I think. My brothers were that way too.

Yikes, I probably deserve to be flamed for this one.

C5/6 incomplete, injured Aug. 2000

[Diamond Downs]

Hmmm....Martha, I'm thinking about it and I'll get back to you later when I have some thoughts together.

Jewel

[Hunker]

That was easy for me. I tell both my children they can not date until they are 28 http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif