Better Than the Birds & Bees:Â
Unpacking Sex Ed for Parents & Caregivers
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If you’re a parent or caregiver and are struggling to figure out how the F to talk to your kids about sex:Â
You’re not alone. Like REALLY not alone.
Our kids are growing up, exploring, forming relationships, having experiences, coming to us with lots of questions - or, even more unnervingly, not coming to us with any questions at all.Â
Many of us feel ill-equipped, uncomfortable, and uncertain about how to stay connected to our kids during this time of rapid growth and intrepid exploration. How would we know to do better, when what we ourselves received probably fell somewhere between negligent and terrifying?
Better Than the Birds & Bees is for those of us who want to do better but don’t know where to start, or how.
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In this talk, we will discuss how we can honestly and comfortably hold these vital conversations with the kids in our lives about bodies, consent and agency, pleasure, touching oneself and others, sexuality, setting boundaries with kids and adults alike, as well as how we can communicate about our needs and perspectives to the other adults in their lives.
- the realities of institutionalized sex ed, from comprehensive to abstinence-only, and the essential curriculum that no one is talking about
- the wild west of the internet: what erotic internet content as sex education means for our kidsÂ
- what we ourselves received as sex education, and how we can take cues from what we needed the most back then to guide how we communicate with our kids now
Meet Pamela!
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Pamela Samuelson (she/they) is a somatic educator, a manual therapist specialized in trauma-informed pelvic care, the creator of Take Back the Speculum, and a writer and activist focused on issues relating to reproductive rights, patient advocacy, and autonomy. She is a co-founder of the Center for the Advancement of Body Literacy, a nonprofit providing evidence-based, inclusive education and materials on body literacy and human sexuality, and the School for Ethical Touch, a US/UK-based project focused on the development and implementation of consent-based, trauma-informed practices across all aspects of healthcare and particularly in the vulnerable realms of gynecological, obstetric, and gender-affirming care. She is based in Los Angeles.
