What is the right age for a child to get its first sex education? Are we, the parents (or soon would-be), aware enough of this?
From
what I see around in young Indians, NO. People are hesitant and
confused. Our generation has taken a leap forward in fighting the
silence on sex, and yet we find ourselves at a helpless loss of words
when the 5-year-old asks one fine afternoon, "Mama, where does a baby
come from?"
I have thought and spoken a lot about this over the
past two years, and being in Germany helped open a new horizon
altogether. My view is: start at 3, not with "the big talk", but small
age-appropriate little bundles of information. Parents are absolutely
pivotal in shaping the child's view on sex and sexuality. From an early
age, the child will adapt to the comfort level of the family on these
topics. If a natural, unaffected vibe floats in the family about sex,
that's the message the child will get : sex isn't a big deal. I say, we
have to learn how to make that happen, as very few of us were born into
families already inculcated with such an outlook.
Back to the
3-year old: talk to the child about its body, give the child the words
for its body parts. Use simple diagrams of a male and a female nude body
for this purpose. The child will follow with simple natural questions.
Basically the idea is to convey that, "Your body is a very natural
thing! You can talk about it openly with us." I am very happy about the
"Personal Safety Education" of the NGOs Arpan and Tulir which
incorporates such basic sex education. I will post in details about that
later. However, we need to keep in mind that, apart from keeping the
child safe, the aim of a healthy sex ed is to give a child a healthy and
natural outlook on this topic. We want the child to understand, love
and enjoy its body. The private areas are just supposed to be kept
covered, but they are nothing to be ashamed of! Here the topic of how a
child looks at nudity comes in. Let me take up that later again.
Until then, I would like to hear your views...
