bird and the bees? Did they tell you in person, give you books and let you figure it out, or use a different method? My mother tried telling my sister and me about it one night before she tucked us in, and I think I was about 8 (sis would have been 7). She was nervous but did an OK job explaining the basics. When I was 10, she got us the Life Cycle Library, which was actually a very hip, educated, liberal thing to do on her part (would have been around 1973). I read those books from cover to cover, and my basic knowledge about sex came from them. They were thorough, nonjudgmental, and covered everything, including dating and all the methods of birth control available up to that point. My sister and brother read them too when Mom thought they were old enough (age 10 seemed to be that age).

I'm grateful to Mom for doing things that way. I did not grow up repressed or ignorant, which means a lot. When I think about how backward a lot of current thinking is about sex education, it makes me shudder.