Photo credit: Phil Moore on Flickr

Unrolls… get it? haha. Nice headline!

“Nunavut has STI rates 17 times above the national average, and the number of gonorrhea cases in the territory jumped by 200 per cent between 2006 and 2008, according to officials,” says the CBC report. (Anyone know about B.C.?)

I say kudos to health officials for doing this! I hope everyone can have a good talk about any other matters related to sex in their lives. I hope the health officials will be compassionate and non-judgmental so the young people are comfortable enough to share their concerns and questions. This could also be a window of opportunity for any young people who have been abused and need to talk with a responsible adult about their feelings.

Ideally parents would set their kids up with the right explanation and protection re: sex. People tend to figure it out for themselves, but they are well-served by at least two important caveats: avoid disease and avoid pregnancy.

Unfortunately – and understandably – many parents may not know what to say. For example, my parents, who grew up in the 1950s, were not very comfortable with the topic and believed in abstinence til married. Even though times and morals have changed, many people are still too uncomfortable to talk about it.

If kids haven’t discussed sex with their parents since a young age, they may feel too uncomfortable to bring it up. Personally, I’ve always been very open with my son’s questions, and he knows he can ask me anything. His friend even asked me a few questions, and I suggested he should ask his own mom, who had told me before she was concerned her son didn’t want to talk with her about sex.

I told the friend’s mom her son was asking me questions, and she said “I’m glad he has you to talk about it.” So, with her blessing, I answered as best as I could – questions like: “How old will I be when I have semen?” (I have to use my best guess in most cases and can double-check things on Google later if necessary.)

Most of the conversations happened in the car when we drove to and from swimming at the community centre. Some of them, on the way home, were no doubt inspired by seeing naked people. I ended up convincing my son’s friend that his mom wanted him to talk with her about it – that she wouldn’t laugh or get mad. So he brought it up, and now they are talking about it regularly. Sometimes we compare notes on the questions and have a good laugh! Got any good questions to share?