Sex Ed: Model Dialogue 6ish Years Old

Help your children to view positively the development of what doctors call “secondary sex characteristics.” These are the various changes other than genital structure that distinguish men from women after puberty, as we will discuss in a later chapter. Young women experience growth of the breasts and pubic hair; young men experience growth of pubic, facial, and body hair and deepening of the voice. You can anticipate these positively for the child:

CHILD: Dad, why do you have hair on your chest and everywhere while I only have hair on my head?

PARENT: Well, if you look closely, you’ll see that you have hair on your arms, legs, and all over your body. When the time is right, though, your hair will start to grow in many places, and it will get darker and thicker. Someday you will be able to grow a beard! Your hair on your arms and legs will get darker, and you will grow hair right over your penis. This is one of the first signs that you are beginning to change from being a boy to being a man.

CHILD: But what if I’m not ready to become a man?

PARENT: (Laughs.) Well, God knows when you’re ready, even if it seems a little scary now. He made your body so that it just starts to change whether you think you’re ready or not. And don’t worry; I want to help you during the time you are becoming a man. This is exactly what God wants for you; it’s an exciting and wonderful thing.

Some parents grew up in families that treated sexual development negatively. Examples include talking about “the curse” (menstruation), or derogatory talk about men as sexual animals or women as sexual objects. These are not the beliefs we want to pass on to children. We must strive as Christians to have the attitude toward our wondrous bodies that God himself has.

Some content taken from HOW AND WHEN TO TELL YOUR KIDS ABOUT SEX, by Stan and Brenna Jones. Copyright © 1993, 2007, 2019. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. To purchase books in the GOD’S DESIGN FOR SEX book series, go to www.navpress.com.