Children of The Church: Human Sexuality and Theology of the Body for Children

An important topic in any household is Human Sexuality and how to teach it to our children. My husband and I have discussed this topic a lot within our own marriage, how it was presented to us as children and how we would like to present it to our own children. We have always been open and receptive to our children's questions, but thought that we had a while before we got to the BIG STUFF. Well, although our oldest is only 8 1/2 years old, between having a new baby in our family this year (which brings up a LOT of questions) and our oldest being very inquisitive we have learned that we are lot closer to all of the big talks than we thought.

Here is what we have been doing to prepare.

1. Pray: Talking about sexuality and God's design for sex is a big topic and even kind of intimidating for parents to approach. We have been praying to God and together for us to receive the graces to best present this topic to our children.

2. Unity within the Family: Although we have boys we want to talk to our children together as a united couple. Certainly if they have questions that they just want to ask my husband or I we want to be open to listening, yet want to initiate conversations together.

3. Fluidity and Continuity: We want to continue to talk about sexuality as our children continue to age and have more questions. Even when our children are very little we teach them the proper names of their body parts and what body parts are meant to keep private. As our children have more questions we want to continue to engage in conversations rather than just having "One Talk" and then brushing our hands of it.

4. Modeling Healthy Sexuality and Modesty: I think it is really important that my husband and I prioritize our marriage and also modeling healthy sexuality for our children. It is important for us to teach proper modesty and privacy within our home. We teach things like shutting the door when you use the restroom, changing clothes in your room, not walking around the house in your underwear (even for boys!) and as our boys have gotten older giving mom full privacy while in the shower and/ or while getting dressed. We also want our children to witness the blessings of healthy sexuality within a marriage. My husband and I will kiss and hug in front of our children and speak to each other in loving words.

5. Education: My husband and I first wanted to properly educate ourselves about how we want to present the topic of the gift of sexuality to our children. We also wanted to have resources available to help us in the discussions with our children. Here are a few things that we have found that we have read, and will read with our children.

For Parents