Kids have sex. Not a few kids but a lot of kids. 33% of girls and 45% of boys have had sex by the time they turn 15 according to research done by the National Center for Health Statistics. A lot of the kids having sex are in Junior High. That can be a tough thing to wrap your brain around, especially if you have young teens. I hate to tell you it gets worse, but it does. Oral sex is the rage amongst kids. 55% of teens are doing it according to a survey done by Seventeen Magazine. So even if your child hasn’t had “technical sex” there is a better than 50% chance they have had “oral sex”. You might be thinking isn’t sex, sex? Not to kids. Kids think oral sex isn’t really sex because you can do it and still be a virgin.   

It hard to imagine your 12 to 14 year-old struggling with the pressures of sex and thinking about whether to go “all the way” or just have “oral sex”. But they do, and they have regrets. According to a survey done by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy 73% of 12 to 14 year-olds who went “all the way” wish they had waited. But regretting they went “all the way” can be the least of their worries, as many do not realize they can contract STD’s, like chlamydia, syphilis, HIV and gonorrhea, through oral sex.

Parents it is time to engage your kids at an early age about sex. You can’t wait until they are teens anymore. If you do you could be too late. And a sketchy talk about the birds and the bees won’t cut it. You’re going to have to talk about all kids of sex with your kids like oral, anal and vaginal. I know that it won’t be easy. Believe me it wasn’t easy for me to just type that. But young kids don’t understand what sex really is. If oral sex isn’t sex to them then we have a lot of explaining to do so they don’t go off and do something thinking it’s really not sex so it’s ok. It may be awkward and hard to have a detailed and frank sex discussion with your pre-teen but it’s a job you can’t leave to anyone else. If you think you child’s school is going to do the job for you think again. Some schools offer no sex education, many offer it only in Junior High (when many kids are already having sex) and schools often limit what can be taught about contraception and safe sex. Educating you children on sex, what is right and what is wrong, and all the minute details is up to you. Don’t wait until it’s too late!