often easier than separating. Chapter 24 Teaching Your Children about Sex and Keeping Them Safe In This Chapter Playing
about sex Protecting kids against cyberporn and X-rated videos hen I was a teenager living in an orphanage in Switzerland, one of my duties was taking care of the younger children. Later on, I worked as a kindergarten teacher in Paris, where I was surrounded by children all day long. My doctorate is in the study of the family. I am the mother of two children and the grandmother of four. Needless to say, I love children, and making sure that they remain safe is a high priority of mine. In this chapter, I tell you how to help keep children safe from the risks they face from sex. Not Everything Is Dangerous: Teaching Proper Functioning and Etiquette Let me begin with a situation that just about every parent faces (and many find embarrassing) but that poses little or no risk to the child. Even though children arent capable of having sex, their sexual organs are sources of plea- sure to them. Some parents think that, if their child touches his or her own genitals or plays doctor with the kids next door, then the child is doing some- thing harmful. This line of thinking couldnt be further from the truth. 334 Part IV: Having a Healthy Sex Life Allowing children to explore their bodies The reason that children touch themselves is simple: It feels good, just the way it feels good when adults touch their own genitals. So the idea that chil- dren would be curious about these good sensations and would try to dupli- cate them is perfectly natural. This process begins in the womb, where boys have erections and girls vaginas lubricate, which should prove to you that this phenomenon is perfectly natural and can do children no
