Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Talk

Alyssa’s fifth grade class is being separated by gender today. Upon separation, the two groups will make their ways to different locations where the female school nurse will show the girls a short video and then discuss said video while the boys will be shown a video presented by the male physical education teacher and a discussion will follow.

Alyssa was all eye-rolly about this entire situation. When I read that parents are invited to attend the discussions, she begged me not to go.

Ha, as if I would. I sat through that very discussion during my own fifth grade year. I don’t need to see/hear it again. Though admittedly it was fun to tease Alyssa with the possibility that I might show up and embarrass her by sitting in the back of the classroom while she and her friends ‘learn’ about puberty.

I air-quote the word learn because at this point, Alyssa and I have had many discussions about this very subject. She isn’t going into this meeting with the nurse uninformed, is what I’m saying.

Funny enough, Olivia asked just last Saturday about how a baby gets out of its mom’s tummy.

When I told her, she was delighted and disgusted all at once. Her eyes got huge and she giggled a little bit, as if thinking I might be kidding. When she realized I was serious, she got a quiet, digesting the information.

I’m sure there are those who think seven if too young for this sort of discussion but you know what? If she’s asking the question, I don’t feel like I should lie when I answer her. I try to keep the answers age-appropriate but sometimes, you can’t sugar-coat it.

I know she’ll have more questions as she gets older and I’ll try to answer them all as honestly, as simply as possible. I want them both to know they can come to me and I’ll never lie to them, never lead them astray.

And I’ll never embarrass them by going to the school during their “What’s Happening to My Body” presentation. That I can promise.

No comments: