parents

Kids learn about sex from the media. That’s been demonstrated again and again. The American Academy of Pediatricians tell us that kids wills see over 40,000 TV ads each year, many of them using sex to sell. The Kaiser Family Foundation research tells us that “seven in ten (71%) have a TV in their bedroom’ and kids spend 4 1/2 hours each day with their eyeballs glued to a screen. There’s sex n the media and our kids absorb it.

So what did they see if they watched the episode of Glee entitled SEXY? For those who don’t know, Glee is the FOX TV series that turns High School Musical into a weekly ‘dramady’. Lots of drama, teen angst and breaking into song. They’ve tackled serious issues and done better with some than others. This episode covered several hot topics and most of what they had to say was pretty good.

Let’s start with the best — Kurt, is a gay male teen with a straight dad. The writers needed to stretch our imagination with a scene where Kurt’s gay schoolmate visits Kurt’s Dad with a warning that Kurt is dangerously clueless about sex. But Dad’s reaction was a stroke of genius by the writers. He took the warning, and had ‘the talk’ with his son. When Kurt balked, Dad acknowledged that he was also uncomfortable, but they were having the conversation anyway and they ‘would both be better men for it’. And so Dad said…..

“For most guys, sex is just this thing we always want to do. It’s fun. It feels great. But we’re not really thinking too much about how it makes us feel on the inside or how the other person feels about it.

You’ve got to know that it means something. It’s doing something to you, to your heart, to your self-esteem, even though it feels like you’re just having fun… I want you to use it as a way to connect to another person. Don’t throw yourself around like you don’t matter. Because you matter, Kurt.”

Could someone please give this message to every kid? You matter. Your body matters. A piece of your soul is exposed in your orgasm. You may never feel more exposed. Choose REALLY, REALLY carefully who you want to share this with.

Dad told Kurt that guys sought sex just for the sex, that girls were the part of the couple that brought the emotion to the equation. Danger, Kurt — because with gay male couples no one is concerned about the emotional aspect. So please Kurt — and every other human being CHOOSE PARTNERS CAREFULLY!!

And so the proverbial rub — the part of the brain that humans use to make good choices is not yet fully developed in adolescents. Kids need an adult like Kurt’s Dad to share truth with love and limits. Adults need the courage to be uncomfortable enough to give the priceless gift of information.

We may not want teachers in our school to emulate the sexy Ms. Haliday, or our kids to emulate Puck in his clueless willingness to make a sex tape to help a friend seem more popular. But maybe parents saw a role model worth their attention. Glee draws a large audience in the 18 – 49 demographic, so there’s hope.

Glee shows viewers a fictional place where everyone can sing and dance, where gay kids get to find a gay-friendly private school, and where the pregnant cheerleader continues her education without interruption. Do we have to look at a fictional world to find parents who actually take the time and muster the courage to tell their kids their truth about sexuality? Let’s not make honest communication with our children about sex a fiction.

How do I know????________________________________________________________

Kaiser Family Foundation -Kids and media study

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm

Glee Audience Demographics

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/04/glee-hits-high-note-for-fox-.html

American Academy of Pediatrics

http://tinyurl.com/AAP-Kids-and-Ads

Bill Zeller was a brilliant graduate student who could unwrap the mysteries of the digital world but was unable to find comfort and joy among people. The words of his poignant suicide note, in which he discussed his childhood rape by an unnamed man, will be parsed by many looking for an answer, a perpetrator, or a moral. Most of us will be tempted to point the finger at his parents, therapists or neighbors, and leave it at that.

But there is a lesson in Bill Zeller’s death even for the most loving and involved parent.

Parents play a critical role in ensuring their child’s sexual health and safety and are remarkably diverse in their ability to do so. Imagine a bell shaped curve; on one end of the curve are parents responsible for sexual abuse and the neglect of sexual pain described by Zeller. On the other end we find dead silence around sexuality. Parents and caretakers of children must find their place in the center.

Children need loving, trusted adults to provide age-appropriate knowledge and language about every part of their body; silence and ignorance about sex are among the weapons used by molesters to coerce child victims into compliance. In his suicide note, Zeller described his parents as fundamentalists and it’s clear that he didn’t trust them (he wrote in his note that he hated them). But parents of all religions and belief systems can and must protect their children with knowledge, language and comfort. All children deserve to live in a community where adults are aware of the signs of sexual abuse and know the resources available to a child victim and his family.

The trust of your child, their willingness to speak with you about what’s important to him or her, is one of a parent’s greatest assets in protecting their children against the hopelessness and pain that so many children experience and that drove Bill Zeller to take his life.

So Why Don’t We Talk?

Parents tell me that they just wouldn’t know where to start if they wanted to have a conversation about sex abuse. If they’ve never had a conversation with their child about sex, they don’t want their first one to be about molesters. Many parents just don’t want to think of sex and their child at the same time in any way at all.

Parents can fool themselves into thinking things will be fine. Some parents will wait until their kids get to school and hope their district provides a good child safety program. Maybe the scouts will have a special program, or the Sunday school. But programs provided by strangers discussing concepts that may be completely foreign to your child can’t possibly have the same effect as a loving dialog; there is no substitute for a permanently open line of communication with parents. Parents delay opening up that line when they’re scared that they won’t be able to handle what comes in. Parents need strategies and tactics to help reach and teach their child.

The Courage to Be Uncomfortable

It can certainly be uncomfortable to look closely at our own thoughts and feeling about sexuality and sex abuse. Along with the reality that sexual issues are shrouded in secrecy, many people enter adulthood with painful memories of their own. In every community people have been scarred through unreported assault from an adult, sexually oriented bullying, sexually explicit and violent language, or date rape. Even without these negative experiences coloring our own perspective, talking to a child about sexuality can be tough.

But we need the courage to be uncomfortable. Keeping our kids sexually safe and healthy requires an extraordinarily brave commitment to self-awareness and healthy family intimacy.

I don’t want to join the on-line chorus of people trying to guess who did what to Bill Zeller. Whatever it was destroyed his spirit and ultimately cost him his life. A friend confided that Zeller’s story was his story and implored me to use my voice as an experienced professional to see if we could make anything decent come from this tragedy. Adults are responsible for keeping children safe and in memory of Bill Zeller, I implore them to learn how. In that spirit I issue this call to action to all parents to find their place in the middle of the continuum; to find the courage to face their discomfort, the resources they need to maintain the sexual health and safety of their children and the consciousness to recognize a child bearing the scars left to strangle the spirit of Bill Zeller.

May he finally find peace.

Helpful Resources:

Read Zellers final words at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/07/bill-zeller-dead-princeto_n_805689.html

The Sex Information and Education Council of the US http://www.siecus.org/

The American Academy of Pediatrics http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;108/2/498

Prevent Child Abuse America www.PreventChildAbuse.org

Dr. Janet Rosenzweig is a 30-year veteran of child welfare and youth serving programs. She is committed to bringing the best possible information to parents to help them raise safe, healthy, happy kids.

This post is based on a column that first appeared in the Princeton Packet 2-8-11

The Sex-Wise Parent

Sexy GLEE

What Parents Can Learn From Bill Zellers Final Words