With the rapid development that is going in every facet of our lives due to science and technology, there is an increase in the rate of unwanted pregnancies and prevalence of sexual transmitted infection (STI) among the youths. And because of the drastic change in the modern society, teens are becoming sexually active at an early age compared to years back.
In our modern society especially in our African setting, discussing sex education to teens, adolescents and young adults is like a taboo. Most parents are scared of speaking about sex education to their wards or confused about the impact of what the discussion may lead to. The reason for this may be due to the fear that their kids may start experimenting in sex after the education.
However, this is totally wrong, a lot of studies have proven that sex education will discourage them from experimenting. This is because kids who are educated about sex education tend to take good decision when it comes to sex.
Talking about sex to kids should not be a serious sit down lecture, this is the mistake a lot of parents are making, if sex education can be done while washing-up, shopping, eating or even driving, it will do a lot of good to the child who would see reasons with parents. The serious sit down lecture seem not to work most times as it may frighten the child if it is handled wrongly.
The role of a parent in child sex education should be an ongoing conversation that will eventually prepare that child for the future. The more a child is kept in the dark when it comes to sex education, the more the child is prone to suffer from sexual activities consequences.
It is totally wrong for parents to wait for their kids to come up with sex education questions before they can approach it. It may be difficult for most kids to come up with sex issues as it makes them feel uncomfortable. This is the reason why it is important that parents address this issue according to the temperament of the child.
Parents play a vital role in impacting to their kids information about sex education, even though sex education is taught in schools, it is only a supplement to what the kids would get from parents. Mostly, what schools do for kids is to teach them the anatomy and physiology of human sexuality while the morality issue is neglected. This is the reason why every parent should understand that the moral issues and obligation when in come to sex should be taught by them.
For every parent, they should understand that when it comes to parenting their wards in our modern world, they never have a lot of information and sometimes less than their kids, this means they should always improve their knowledge of child sex education. If parents can take the sex education serious, the world would be a better place with less unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
