Dear parents,
Does this topic make you a little nervous? Unsure where to begin? Let's tackle this together and maybe it'll feel a little less scary on the other side of it. Ashten Black is a sexual health educator who removes shame from the equation, recognizes the stickiness of this topic and aims to reassure parents of both the invaluable role they play in educating their kids/teens about sexual development, health and relationships, and that what parents bring to the table is intimate knowledge about who their kids are and what they hope to foster with them through open communication when equipped to do so. She's here to help us out with that.

As a parent of two girls at very different stages of development and also kids with hugely differing personalities, like and dislikes, I get how trying to figure out what to bring up, when to bring it up and more importantly the "how" of bringing it up throughout their years, feels complicated. It also comes with my own worries, background of understanding (both what I do and don't know), and what values I was taught surrounding my body, my sexuality, my boundaries and my interactions in relationships. If we want to really create a platform for having open, honest, supportive and shame-free conversations about sex with our kids, we need to wade through all these things and find within ourselves the "readiness" to both set that up well and keep it going.

Like in any episode, we can only cover so much and we know this topic is oh so loaded, so Ashten was kind enough to leave us with these amazing resource suggestions for further learning:

"Sex Positive Talks to Have with Kids" by Melissa Pintor Carnagey. This book also includes a very comprehensive resource list.

Websites to explore:

www.amaze.org

www.kidshealth.org

Joining you in this trench,
Karen