At some point when discussing fertility based religion with children the topic of fertility is bound to come up. (Possibly around Beltane or the very near spring equinox.)
Now me, being the strong and independent woman I like to think I am, hate to ask my husband permission for anything (thanks for being so understanding sweety). But in all fairness he did play a part in bringing them into the world, even if I did all the work. And he's a pretty cool guy so it's not so bad. So before you discuss anything with your children I suggest you find out how your partner in crime (aka spouse, significant other or baby daddy) feels about the subject.
We decided that we would discuss everything we could with the children without using the S word. He was okay with talking about the birth process though. It's about time those kids realized what I went through for them.
I started out by telling them how the God and Goddess created life. We discussed the different type of life on the planet, plants, animals, people and how we were all children of the Goddess and as such everything that is alive is our brothers and sisters and should be treated with respect and love.
I emphasized the God and Goddess rather than just the Goddess, because in every form of life it takes both to create life, even if it both male and female aspects in the same plant or animal.
Then I told the children that the ability to create life was the greatest power that we have been given. We discussed how great power comes with great responsibility (thanks Spiderman!).
We discussed that people and animals and plants all had there own unique ways of creating life, and then we quickly discussed the birth process before any questions of S-E-X could come up. It went smoothly without to many questions.
We finished up by planting seeds. I told the children that while we didn't create this life (it's parent plants did) we can help it grow and become strong and beautiful by taking care of it.
It was a farely painless introduction to the birds and the bees talk that will inevitably come up later.
I do feel like it is important to discuss these things with your children before they hear it from school, or some other source that may not mesh with your beliefs, so this is how I handled it.
How did you or will you handle it?
Blessed Be
Geez you sound like an awesome Mom. I provided a lovely book that explained everything birdish & beeish when both son & daughter hit the 4th grade. We never had "the big talk." Both are grown now with no problems in the sex/relationship arena, so it somewhat worked! :)
ReplyDeleteAnother approach when your kids get older is to give them a good sex education book and then do q and a with them. it worked really well for me and i posted on it along with a bunch of great book suggestions from other moms.
ReplyDeletepragmatic mom
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We gave our kid some books, and we've tried talking to her about it, but she vacillates between embarrassed curiosity and absolutely refusing to discussing it openly. It's funny--I remember getting my own talk from my mother and she seemed so horrified to be talking to me about it, while I was just curious. Now I feel like my daughter and I are in opposite positions--she is too embarrassed to say the word sex, and I don't mind discussing it one way or the other. We did not explain it, however, in terms of a faith. We discussed it pretty clinically.
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