If you don't, someone will!

I honestly thought I would get to tell my kids about Santa before talking to them about "it"! However, I quickly learned that as a parent, if you don't talk to your kids about "it", someone will....and yes "it" means what you think it means! Times have changed and I don't mean to sound like a cliche, but I had no idea just how young kids are learning about such grown-up things. So, because someone else decided to educate my children in a negative way about "it", I was forced to do damage control and have a discussion I wasn't prepared for. How do you explain "it" to a 7 year old girl? I want her to understand that she shouldn't just give it away to any guy that comes along and become a number to him, but I don't want to scare her into thinking it's a bad thing either. The conversation was soooo hard. I didn't want to go into specific detail, but I didn't want to be too general. Ok, what chapter is the birds and bees in the parenting manual? When I was 9, my Mom had "the talk" with me and I am glad she did because it opened up a line of communication with her. I didn't feel as if "it" were a taboo topic. That's what I want with my kids--the ability to talk openly about these things. However, I learned the other night that my daughter knows things that I wasn't prepared for and her "teachers" are surprising!
So, don't underestimate the importance of talking about "it" with your kids--if you don't, someone else will! And I promise their message will be a lot different than the message you want to instill.