Swati Jagdish is a sexuality health educator who is now Insta-famous as Maya’s Amma. Here are her tips to make discussing sex with your child a little less awkward.
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00:00Does Maya remember where babies come from?
00:02U.P.S.
00:03Who's a lesbian?
00:05It's a girl and a girl loving each other.
00:08Why do you think Amma shares all these things with Mayakutty?
00:11Because she cares about me and I love her.
00:14Aww.
00:15Hi, I'm Swati Jaddish.
00:17I'm a lactation counsellor and a sexuality health educator.
00:31Children who can talk confidently about their private parts are safer from child sexual abuse.
00:36That open conversation that you have at home can create beautiful relationships and a nice friendship between the child and the parent as well.
00:45If you want to start sex education at home, the best way to start is by using the right words for the genitalia.
01:04So, vulva and penis and buttocks or anus, breast, nipples.
01:10All these words you can use.
01:12So, when you're bathing the child or when you're cleaning the child or when you're undressing, dressing, you can use these words.
01:19Just like we say this is your head, your shoulder, your neck or your toes.
01:22It's the right word for the private parts and that's the first sex talk that you can have.
01:31I've also come across a situation where my daughter has spoken about a penis or something in front of her grandparents.
01:38So, we had a small laugh. We just laughed and then we left it there.
01:44So, what you can do if you're getting embarrassed is you can tell the child that good question, nice question.
01:51I appreciate that you asked this question to me.
01:55I'm not able to give you a solid answer right now but I'll read about it and then I'll get back to you with the most simplest answer so that you understand it for your age.
02:05No matter what you do, you should not shame the child, judge the child or stop the child from asking these questions.
02:11You have to always keep the communication channel open.
02:18When talking about body parts or baby making or anything for that matter, I don't make it a big deal.
02:24I don't tell her, you shouldn't talk about it outside. It's such an embarrassing topic.
02:29If you don't stigmatize and dramatize these concepts at home, children won't feel like talking about it outside because it's not a shameful topic for them or not a very amusing topic for them to talk about.
02:44Whatever you talk should be age appropriate, which means if a 3 year old is asking about why you took a pad into the bathroom, then that is age appropriate because the child's brain is asking you the question.
03:01And you should not talk about your personal life with the child, personal sex life.
03:09You shouldn't scare the child with your childhood, what happened to you. So that is off limits.
03:19Before entering into bettering the sexual health of the child, first ask yourself, how much do you know?
03:25What all can you learn? What kind of deep rooted sexual values or belief systems or sexual shame that you have within you that you need to break out of and come out of?
03:36So it's more about you, what you know or what you don't know. That is what is sex education first.
03:43So before thinking about the child, it's about yourself.