Your child is never too young to learn about appropriate sexual boundaries and what is comfortable touch and uncomfortable touch. I recently learned of a six year old boy who propositioned a six year old girl for sex. Even though this was alarming, it was not the first time I have heard of such things. I have heard of girls and boys at even younger ages having sexual contact and relations with each other. These are the times we live in. It is unfortunate, but true.
Upon hearing this I had another conversation with my children about appropriate touch and sexual boundaries. I reminded them of the kinds of things they needed to be cautious about, and how to reject sexual solicitations. We can’t be everywhere our child is every second of the day, so we need to make sure that our children can’t be tricked or manipulated. We need to arm our children with the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe. It is our job as parents to teach our children about the sacred nature of our bodies and how to take care of them.
Please accept this simple reminder to talk to your children about these things. We started teaching our children about their “special bodies” when they were one year old because we started taking foster children into our home. I will never regret making my children aware at a young age, because they are usually the children in the neighborhood who know when they should tell me that something wrong has happened or could happen with another child and they know too much to get fooled.
There is a great song in the Children’s Songbook called The Lord Gave Me A Temple (page 153) for teaching children about how their bodies are temples and should be kept pure.
For youth I really love the talk given by Jeffery R. Holland called Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments . It is beautifully put and is a great new perspective on intimacy too. I read it as an adult and learned a lot! I highly recommend this read.
For more of my thoughts on teaching children about sex read chapter 27 in my book, Parenting A House United.
For more free answers to parenting questions visit Nicholeen’s blog http://teachingselfgovernment.com