What I wish my parents had told me…

Sex, to most teens, is weird. Appealing, yes. Intriguing, yes. But weird.

Many teens are slightly weirded out by their bodies. Why is my body doing this? Why do I feel this way? AM I NORMAL?

Your children have few places to go for answers. Scratch that. They have few good places to go – the internet provides hundreds of pornographic resources, but you may not want to rely on those. It falls on you to bring up sex (and arousal, and porn, and masturbation), no matter how awkward it is. If it is awkward for you, think about how awkward it is for your child!

I wish my parents had told me: that getting older doesn’t make it easier to keep sexual boundaries; that sex doesn’t always bring you closer together; that looking at porn makes it harder, not easier, to avoid the “real thing”; that it is more fun when you are older anyway; that sex can ruin relationships even if you don’t get pregnant or an STD….I wish my parents had told me.