The TALK

Phase one is complete.

I had THE talk last week with my son about sex. He's going to be 12 in a few short months, and while we've discussed periodically through the years some of the changes he can expect in his young body, this is the first time we actually discussed the fact that a penis and a vagina fit together quite nicely, that sex feels fantastic, and that condoms are not just some type of weird-shaped balloon to be used during water fights. I explained to him (with the help of a diagram of the male anatomy) what semen is and its very important part in making babies.

I refused to be embarrassed about the subject matter and I truly think that because I was calm and matter-of-fact about it, that made the whole situation far less awkward for my boy than it could have been.

He had a couple of questions, and the only time his eyes got wide was upon seeing a diagram of the outside of a woman's 'nunoone'. I wanted to stress to him the importance of coming to me if he doesn't understand something, or if he hears something from his friends that maybe doesn't make sense because after all, we know that sex-talk among peers on the playground is rife with the truth.

As part of my brain was registering the fact that he is mature enough to understand and deal with this information, my heart is still aching because it understands that my little boy is no longer a baby.

Someone pass the pregnancy-approved vodka.