Mummy idea: Let's talk about sex...

I had a really good talk recently with my 10 year old about where babies come from. School and their friends had obviously given them some information, but I thought I should have a talk too.

My talk went well. It went really well. So well, in fact, that I sent my husband this message:

“I just had an interesting 'sex' talk with X. It was actually fine. X told me Y had said that people have sex. So I asked what that was . X told me it involved boy and girl’s private parts. I said it did. X kept sticking her tongue out and saying yuck - lol'”

Anyway, phew. Hard work over about how babies get in and out and how surprisingly easy it was! It turns out it was easy - easily forgotten!

I obviously did a terrible job because a few months later we were talking. I was confused because I knew we’d had 'that' talk. So I pushed. And it soon became obvious that X couldn't even remember ever having that conversation!

Talk about annoying. I’d lost sleep over having 'that' conversation - tossing and turning over exactly what I should say.

Turns out I shouldn't have bothered losing sleep because it was going to be forgotten anyway!

So I knew I still needed to cross that bridge. I needed a Plan B ASAP.

Enter Adam Kay: former doctor, turned author and comedian. You might have heard of his best sellers: ‘This is Going to Hurt’ and ‘Dear NHS’. I love his books and as luck would have it he has also written a great and hilarious book on the anatomy of the human body for children called 'Kay's Anatomy'. I bought the audiobook and a hard-copy.

I listened to the whole audiobook with both my children, apart from the chapter called, 'Reproduction'. I didn’t necessarily think my 9 year old needed that information quite yet! And then, completely chickening out, I gave my other child (who is 2 years older) the hard copy and told X to read it.

Job done. It worked. A few weeks later I asked again and, yes, sex is still disgusting!!

But more importantly I know X knows...