My son will be nine years old in a few months.

I’m thinking it could be time for a bit of, ah, information dissemination on the topic of sex.  I say that whilst cringing at the thought, yet knowing it is more important that he receive factual information in a timely manner than indulging any squeamishness on my part. 

But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

My mother never had “the talk’ with me.  She never had it with my sister, either.  As a result, my sister got her period one day and was convinced that she was dying.  She saw blood down there and was convinced that she was having internal hemorrhaging and began to write a will.  I got nothing, by the way.

So seeming to have learned that something needed to be done to spare me the same trauma as my sister, my mother bought me a book.  She didn’t present it to me and assure me that it was fine to ask her any questions.  Oh no, she sort of hid it in a place she knew I would find it, and so I picked it up thinking I was reading something I wasn’t supposed to.  Which made reading the book quite an experience as I thought I would get into trouble for reading it, as it mentioned all kinds of things that I thought would get me into trouble if I knew about them.

My mom was tricky like that.

I never told her I read it and she never asked, but it all worked out fine. 

I just want to be a bit more proactive about the whole thing than my mom was.  And goodness knows that kids learn so much at a much earlier age these days, most of it probably wrong. So I spoke with my husband  and he agreed that we should start off with a book and then he would do any heavy lifting in the questions department.

Lo and behold, the book my mother bought me back in the early 1980’s is still around!

I remember the book being funny and informative and not really embarrassing to read.  It covered a large range of topics in a friendly, informative manner.  And did I mention it was funny?

My copy is already on the way.