Teaching your children about the body

For many parents, the thought of talking with their children about the body and sexuality brings back the awkwardness of their own childhood. Yet the Church is clear that this is first of all a task for parents, and it does not have to happen in one dreaded talk. It can unfold naturally over years, in age appropriate steps, in an atmosphere of love and trust.

Parents as first educators

The Catechism teaches that parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children, and that they show it above all by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule (CCC 2223). Saint John Paul II wrote that sex education is a basic right and duty of parents, always to be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in schools they choose (Familiaris Consortio 37).

The Pontifical Council for the Family offered detailed guidance in The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995). It encourages parents to give information with delicacy and clarity, at the right time, respecting each child's stage of development and speaking with each child individually.