The Talk: Helping Your Kids Navigate Sex in the Real World

Are you having a hard time talking to your kid about sex? Join the club. Alice Dreger, PhD, brings her unique sense of humor and refreshing directness to bear on this landmine of a subject, laying out clear methods that emphasize respect, health, and happiness.After Dreger's live tweeting of her son's abstinence sex ed class went viral, Dreger was asked by many parents how she had managed to raise a 14-year-old so comfortable talking about sex - comfortable enough even to challenge sex ed teachers when they presented misinformation.The Talkis a response to those questions. In it, Dreger explains how you can engage your children in productive conversations about sexual anatomy, sexual behaviors, sexual responsibility, and sexual pleasure and how you can do it in a nonshaming fashion that will support not only your child's well-being but also your long-term relationship with your child.Using the humor and clarity for which she is known, Dreger provides the basic information you need to understand sex development, gender identity, and erotic feelings and behaviors while also giving you a clear method for talking with children about difficult subjects like sex.The Talkgives you examples of how to answer children's questions and even explains how to recover if you screw up a conversation about sex. Whether your child is a preschooler or a teenager,The Talkwill help you go forward with more information and less fear.Alice Dreger, PhD, is an historian of medicine, science, and sexuality and an award-winning writer. Her essays on sex have appeared inThe New York Times,The Atlantic,WIRED, Slate,The L.A. Times,The Chicago Tribune,Pacific Standard,Fathering Magazine, andPsychology Today, and she has appeared as a sex expert on dozens of broadcast programs, including Oprah, CNN International, NPR'sAll Things Considered, andSavage Lovecast. Her consultancy work includes editing a handbook for parents of children born with relatively uncommon forms of sex anatomy (intersex) and coediting a teaching guide on LGBT patient care f