Bah. Penny is slipping back into her old pattern of waking up before 6. These days, at least, we can change her diaper and then put her back in the crib with a book, leave the light on for her, and go back to bed ourselves.

There wasn't a Hall session last night, because Jeff was taking care of his girlfriend, who had surgery yesterday. (That Jeff! The man really needs to get his priorities straight!)

Anyway, for one reason or another, K.T. and I wound up having this really in-depth conversation about sex, and attitudes about sex, and the stupid things that took us far too long to realize were just wrong.

I'm horrified at the years I wasted, worrying about information that was incorrect and attitudes that were just plain dumb.

It's enough to make me want to download some of Andrea's most fundamental columns (not the "weird" or funny stuff, but the stuff that everyone really ought to know, but for some reason everyone has to find out the hard way) and print them out and leave them somewhere for Penny to "stumble across" when she's twelve or thirteen.

(Which is not to say that I want to even think about her having sex at that age. What a horrifying thought. But that's about when I remember starting to think about it and talk about it and wonder what all the fuss was about -- which means that's about when the education should start.)

The parenting books would have me believe that I should sit down with her and talk to her about it. That we should have this parent-child trust/bond thing going. Ha. Hehe. Hee.

I remember my mom trying to talk to me about sex. The mechanics -- that was fine. She augmented the clinical data that I'd gleaned from the filmstrips they'd showed us at school, and I didn't have any problems asking her questions about that. But that was all about what a menstrual cycle was, and how babies grow.

It didn't have much to do with sex, and it certainly didn't have anything to do with pleasure. And how could it? How do you define an orgasm for someone who's never had one? How do you talk about erogenous zones; or that it's okay to ask for what makes you feel good, or to say no to something that makes you uncomfortable?

Actually, that last part is covered well... but the others really aren't. I can appreciate the emphasis, but not the omission.

I'm not looking forward to having to teach Penny about sex, but I hope I don't bungle it. It's so much scarier now, than when I was a kid.

--Liz