What’s Sex?

I’ve been teaching parents how to answer the question, “What’s sex?” for nearly 20 years and this past week I made a reel doing just that - but I made a mistake! In a recent reel, I misspoke and defined sex incorrectly! 🙈

I’ve been traveling with the kids, visiting family and I simply slipped up. I didn’t say it intentionally wrong - as some commenters wanted to argue. I was making the video quickly, in the guest bedroom of my in-laws place, while my kids were finishing up breakfast! I’ve defined sex so many times and this time, I was rushing to finish the video and just missed the error in the editing process. But my error - shouldn’t be your error. So, let’s fix it now.

Explaining Sex to a Kid in the Intermediate Age

I recommend parents to get prepared to answer the question, “what's sex?” around the Intermediate age (ages 7,8,9). This is because for the majority of kids, they’ll hear or read the word sex at some point during this age range and ask the question, “What’s sex?”

Parents: you don’t need to go to your kid and explain sex on their 7th birthday! This age range is meant to give you the space to get prepared and recognize that the sex talk could be happening at anytime in the next 1 to 3 years! I don’t want you to feel caught off guard when your kid asks the question but instead to think to yourself in that moment, I knew this question was coming!

When you go to define sex to an Intermediate age kid - use body part language. This is intentional as it simplifies the main message of what sex is in order to refocus on CSA prevention.

Here’s the reel where I defined sex incorrectly. See if you can spot my mistake.