Friday, November 4, 2011

"Puberty is gross!"... "Who is Puberty?"

All fifth grade students are required to attend a sex education class at school.  Oops.  I'm sorry.  They are not required to attend, but if they don't, then they have to sit in a classroom with five other kids who have uncool parents and practice long division.

I'll be honest - the thought of Bailey learning and talking about (s-e-x) scared me to death.  SHE'S ONLY 10 YEARS OLD FOR PETE'S SAKE.  

Yesterday, I had butterflies in my stomach all day from worrying about Bailey.  I kept thinking, 'I hope she does okay.  I hope she doesn't get too upset.  I hope this makes her stay away from boys until she's thirty-seven.'

I picked up Bailey and my niece, Claire, from school:

Me: "Hey girls!  How was your day?"
Bailey: "Mom, can we go get ice cream?" 
Claire: "Yeah, Aunt Amanda.  Can we?"
Bailey: "Claire, you had ice cream today at school."
Claire: "You did, too, Bay."
Bailey:  "Oh, yeah....  So, Mom, can we get ice cream?"
Me: "Sure."  
Bailey: "Today was really bad.  We played rock, paper, scissors in P.E., which was totally boring.  Then we had a big test in Science.  And then we got assigned seats in lunch.  In lunch. When are we supposed to talk?"...... "Oh, yeah.  And puberty is gross."
Claire:  "Who is Puberty?  Is that who you had to sit beside in lunch?"
Bailey: "No.  Puberty isn't a person.  It's a.... well, it's.... it's something really gross."
Claire: "What is it?"
Bailey: "Believe me - you don't want to know."  


And we just left it at that.  I certainly didn't want to be the one to tell my niece about puberty and sex.  That's the punishment you get for having children.  That job belongs to my sister.

Later that night, Bailey and I got a chance to talk about her class.  She seemed pretty scared but informed.  And something tells me that was kind of the point.

How do you know what is the right age is to talk to your children about adult issues?  There is a fine line between exposing them too early and waiting until its too late.

On a side note, can you believe that they play rock, paper, scissors in P.E.?  They should just hand out Doritos and a X-Box instead.