Sexuality

Sister has been going to progressive Unitarian church. The church has an interesting mix of people with large gay and lesbian following, some of whom have children. She's enjoyed the church so much that she decided to volunteer to teach classes for the kids. It started out mainly being classes centered around yoga, since she does that for a living. I thought that was interesting, teaching the physical and spiritual nature of yoga to 8-10 year olds. Not that they can grasp it fully, but at least the concepts will not be foreign to them later in life.

The minister at her church recently approached her to teach other courses. These courses are about sexuality. Sister has no hangups, so she decided she would. The first class was more of an introduction to body - the kids were taught the correct names of everything and what they are for. The theory here is that talking about it at this age will hopefully promote more honest discussion at home during those crazy teen years.

The follow-on class was about relationships and origin of babies - mommy-daddy, mommy-mommy and daddy-daddy combinations all had equal exposure. There was a recent development in the church of a mommy-daddy situation in which daddy came screaming out of the closet with a boa and new boyfriend, soooo, now its a mommy-daddy-and-well-built-well-dressed-uncle 3-way living situation. Sister isn't sure how to explain this kind of trinity to the 8-10 year old crowd, so it probably won't be included this go 'round.

The class she will be teaching next will be about masturbation. I'm not sure I'd want to explain that to a 10 year old. Still, I think its a good idea to get it out as a topic so its easier to talk about during those crazy teen years.

Since Sister creates her lectures at home its natural that her two girls have been indirect audience. And this has resulted in some interesting episodes.

Scene: Dining room, everyone is seated and eating. My 5 year old niece walks in naked stands before my sister.

Niece: Mommy, this is my vulva, only I can touch it.

Sister: Yes sweetie, that's exactly right, but that's a private thing, not a thing we share at the dinner table.

(We're hoping she stops this before high school)

This next one was my favorite, she had the right direction but there were some important details missing.

Niece's friend: I know where babies come from.

Niece: Where?

Niece's friend: The mommy goes into the bathroom and if her water breaks she'll have a baby, if it doesn't she'll have to adopt.