MessyONE:

I also never did get why fathers aren't encouraged to deal with the "sex talk" with their kids. Somehow that always gets dumped on the mothers for both genders, regardless of which parent would handle it better. I know men get weirded out with their daughters, but surely he can make her a doctor's appointment. That's what you would have done, right, Tonto?

Hell, Aunt Messy, men are actively discouraged from dealing with the "sex talk" with their daughters. These days men are on thin ice if they hug a female child, and any discussion of anything even remotely sexual crosses all kinds of lines. I never let any of that stop me from hugging my girls whenever they wanted one - indeed, it was a Rule in my house that if a child wanted a hug from an adult they didn't have to ask, or wait. Just climb up in the lap and grab your hug. But the "sex talk" was something I never did with them. When they had questions (and all three of them did) I sent them to their mother. The fact is, I was not comfortable thinking about my daughters in sexual terms at all at that age. I understood that they would eventually become sexual creatures and I made no judgements about that. I simply ignored it. Like the old rule about polite people never discussing politics or religion in social settings, middle aged men simply do not discuss sex with barely pubescent girls.

Boys, on the other hand, are much easier. A quick overview of STDs and a frank discussion of how unplanned pregnancies can - and often do - derail young people's plans for their futures takes maybe ten minutes. Then you just hand him his first box of Trojans and offer him the same piece of fatherly advice dear old Dad offered you, lo those many years ago... "If you drink, don't park. Accidents cause people".