A little advanced warning. If you are shy, you might want to skip this blog.
We knew she was going to hit puberty sooner than later. So we prepared ourselves to talk about sex. Since she's ten, we answer everything with as short of an answer as possible. If the short answer satisfies her curiosity, great. If not, then we provide more short answers. All are honest and use the real words. Yet, her questions are unabashed, which I wasn't prepared for.
For example, today she wanted to know whether Mike and I have sex, and if we'd had it since she moved in. Hmm, should I be honest now, I thought? I decided so. So I answered, yes, we have sex like all married couples. Any other details are personal and aren't meant to be shared.
Then she informed me she wanted babies when she was 16. She'd think about having them now, she said, but she can't have babies yet because she doesn't have her period. (Thank heavens, we say.) So then I responded by talking through all the things she'd have to do when she was 16 to have a baby: go to school at night, work full time at a job like McDonald's so all her money could support the baby. Ok, 19, she reasoned. I repeated the story from seconds ago but inserted college with high school. OK, 25, she said. OK, I said.
I also wasn't prepared to to have to have these somewhat instrusive and challenging conversations all the time. Seriously. In the past few days we've talked about sex on the way to the bus and on the way back from the bus. We discuss sex at dinner and breakfast. Odds are if we're talking about something, it is related to sex.
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