Sex Education

When we were in about 4th grade we had our first sex education lecture. A 'Mother and Daughter' evening was organised and we all trooped into the assembly hall with our mothers. Boys had an equivalent 'Father and Son' evening on another night. Other girls may have been more aware of things, particularly if they had older sisters, but I was blissfully unaware of any sort of reproductive activities.

I had somehow decided all by myself that you take a special tablet and that a baby would then grow in your stomach. On the very morning of the aforementioned talk I had asked my mother about baby tablets, how you ask the doctor for them and if it was embarrassing. She said that it was embarrassing and you just said, "can I have a baby tablet please". So I knew what the talk was going to be about and confidently told my friends.

Well, of course the talk wasn't anything like I expected. "Men-stru-ation, a wonderful part of being grown up," the lecturer told us, "tiny drops of blood in your undies show that you are about to become a woman". Then terms such as womb, egg and sperm were mentioned and diagrams flashed on and off the screen (there was a film) and we were told sternly NOT to discuss this topic with anyone other than our mothers because it was PRIVATE.

What!!!!!!! I didn't have a clue what was being talked about. Where was the information about the baby tablets? My father was waiting to walk us home and I was so confused all I wanted to know was where was this womb and how does the sperm get to the egg, what were these things??? He patiently started to say something about bees and flowers and I was so frustrated that I burst into tears and said I wanted to know about humans, not bees and flowers. My parents' reaction - "you are too young to know, you'll find out at school when you're older".

I decided it must be something really awful. The worst thing I could think of was poo so I decided it must have something to do with that. I ended up being so distressed I had nightmares afterwards.

Of course I discussed the topic with my friends and we all had theories, none correct, but our main concern was not how the baby got IN but how it got OUT. There were many theories ranging from vomiting it out, to undoing the navel and to having the doctor cut it out. We weren't really happy about any.

Finally someone's brother told her a version of how babies actually got in the womb and she told us. We all declared that absolutely disgusting and none of us would ever do anything like that. I didn't ask my parents if this information was true because I knew they were too embarrassed about 'business below the belt'.

I did swear to myself if I ever had children I would always tell them the truth, and to my knowledge I have kept that promise.