When my eldest child was twelve years old,
we had a busy house with three younger siblings,
and two more girls we minded by day.
I began to feel my eldest was missing out on time with me.
It was impractical to plan for special days out together,
as I would probably not follow through.
And so we began “Girls night”.
This was to be a half hour one night per week,
where we sat together alone and watched tv.
She was delighted with the idea.
I also had a secondary plan.
She was growing up,
this would be an opportunity for her to be alone with me,
giving her a chance to ask any questions she might have,
about puberty, sex, or whatever.
Her biggest wish at the time was to watch “Friends”.
It seemed to be on every channel every evening.
I had refused to let her as I felt the content above her years.
So I began to watch it regularly,
and try to view it through her eyes.
The more I watched it the more I felt it was suitable viewing.
In fact better than that it might even prompt a few questions.
So after I had viewed about ten episodes, with her in mind,
I announced that not only would we have “girls night”,
but we would be watching “friends”.
She was delighted.
We got the popcorn out,
put the smallies to bed,
and sat on the couch for our first official night.
I was fairly smug as I sat there.
This was ticking all the boxes,
time together,
a chance for her to ask questions about anything she might see,
and both while watching a show I love.
Genius!
And so it began.
To this day I will never forget our first night.
The entire episode was about Chandler.
He was IMPOTENT!
And they recommended he resort to PORN!
Oh help me.
We had had “the talk”,
but impotence and porn definitely did not feature!
I sat transfixed, watching the tv.
She sat happy as can be.
I was sweating, waiting for the questions.
When it was over she was buzzing.
Can we do this every week?
I was still traumatized.
What? No questions?
Eventually I asked straight out,
“Did you understand what this was about?
“Impotence and porn?”
She looked at me and laughed, very relaxed.
“Yes Mum, I understood ALL of it”.
It would appear that it was I who got the education that night.
I learned that my child was a lot more savvy than I thought.
photo credit: Wahlander via photopin cc
photo credit: rafiq s via photopin cc
My thoughts on a page. 
Such a funny story! I remember when I was 11, during dinner my dad asked me what I learned in school that day. I responded with “we learned about seminal ejaculation”… its been almost 10 years and he still is yet to ask me again what I learned in school.
Oh brilliant! Very funny.
Last year I took my daughter to see the movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I knew nothing about it, only that my uptight, prudish sister had read the book and if she had read it it had to be pretty vanilla, right? (Little did I know, she never finished it.) Ummm…no. Let’s just say there was no need for “the talk” after that.
lmao. We live and learn. Haven’t seen it but heard all about it, great mother and daughter viewing!
It’s a bit… um… racy. Violently, cringe worthy, racy…
Sounds good, Might pencil it in for “me” night!
Yep. Sounds about right. At least she didn’t cover her ears and say “Eww, Mom!”
I nearly did the ear covering!
Brilliant storytelling and story! Reminds me of an incident my Mum had with my daughter when she was about 7 and her cousin (a girl) who was 6. My Mum was wondering if a certain man would make a good boyfriend for my youngest sister. The girls burst out laughing. When my Mum asked them what was so funny they both replied “Sure has a boyfriend of his own” My Mum was flummoxed and asked how he could have a boyfriend. Together they replied “Cos he’s gay” That evening my daughter suggested I have a talk with my mother about gays, lesbians and transgender!
Ha ha. Your poor mum! Brilliant
they grow up so much faster nowadays, don’t they? 😆
Tell me about it! That was the first, the fourth is way ahead of me.
LOL! I can imagine your reaction 😉
You would not need a good imagination!