Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask): The Secrets to Surviving Your Child's Sexual Development from Bi

Richardson, an assistant psychiatry professor at Columbia and Cornell who maintains a private practice in psychiatry, and Schuster, a UCLA associate professor of pediatrics and public health and the founding director of a CDC-sponsored adolescent health center, bring extraordinary expertise and scintillating intelligence to this guide to coping with a child's sexual maturation. Acknowledging that kids are""inherently sexual"" (male fetuses, for example, have erections in utero), the authors show how parents can influence their children's sexual development in healthy ways through honest communication. With this forthright and reassuring volume, the Richardson and Schuster prove themselves models of that skill. They walk readers through the development of an average girl and boy, from infant""seeds"" of sexuality to teenager's first experience of intercourse, and fearlessly cover topics from toddler sex play to dating, love, homosexuality, masturbation, birth control, STDs and pregnancy. Thoroughly researched, extremely well written and chock-full of personal stories from parents, this""survival guide"" should be required reading for any parent who believes in being open about these touchy issues.