Parents As Sexuality Educators: Small Group Ministry

By Robin Slaw

May 30, 2018

In a small group setting, adults explore their roles as the most important sexuality educators their children will have.

Twelve 90-minute sessions invite parents and caregivers to explore their role as the primary sexuality educators of their elementary through teenage children. Using a small group ministry format, adults engage with topics including Gender Identity, Relationships, Social Media, Unintended Pregnancy, and Consent. This program can be run concurrently for parents and caregivers while children or youth engage in an Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality education program. The sessions can also be incorporated into an existing small group ministry/Chalice Circle series for parents. Sessions are authored by Robin Slaw, an OWL trainer and credentialed UU religious educator.

The information and attitudes that adults share with their children—intentionally or by default—carry extraordinary power. Many adults struggle to wield this power effectively and confidently. Often, their own experiences, perspectives, and worries get in the way. These sessions invite parents and caregivers to find support and courage with one another.

Explore the program online:

Preface

Robin Slaw

Our children absorb messages from every second of their awake lives. Our culture often sends a message to children and adolescents that doesn’t reflect our family and personal values. In this world, failing to talk to our children can have just as much impact as parent-initiated communication….
Introduction

Welcome to a program for Unitarian Universalist parents and caregivers who seek support and skills to be effective sexuality educators of their children.
Session 1—Hopes and Concerns for Kids’ Sexual Health

NOTE to FACILITATORS: This is the first of two mandatory 90-minute sessions for groups using this small group ministry (Chalice Circle) series….
Session 2—Communication

Many parents and caregivers avoid talking about sex and sexuality for fear of doing it wrong. Yet even imperfect conversations can build an adult’s comfort and skill, a child’s trust, and positive, healthy communication around sexuality-related matters. In this session, participants recall both…
Session 3: Gender Identity

Parents and caregivers help to shape a child’s healthy understanding of both their own gender and the gender diversity out in the world. This session calls participants to explore their ideas and feelings about gender and the values about gender they are teaching their children, explicitly or…
Session 4: Sexual Orientation

In a liberal religious community, parents and caregivers may be reluctant to share any discomfort they may feel about a child’s emerging sexual orientation. This session opens a nonjudgmental space for adults to be honest with themselves about feelings, questions, and concerns. Participants…
Session 5: Relationships

Relationships bring potential for love, loss, increasing levels of sexual contact, and emotional or physical abuse. They may develop in a variety of ways and stages, from the initiation of dating through different levels of physical intimacy and sexual contact. …
Session 6: Sexual Health

Many adults worry, long before their children’s puberty, about sexually transmitted infections (STIs, also called sexually transmitted diseases or STDs), abusive relationships, unintended pregnancy, and other sexual health hazards. This session helps adults channel their worries into a long-term,…
Session 7: Decision Making

Parents and caregivers, of course, worry about what might happen to their children. As children move toward puberty, adult concerns expand to include harm that can result from a child’s own decisions. With sexual decisions, the stakes can feel quite high. While worry can tempt parents and…
Session 8: Consent

Parents and caregivers are rightfully concerned about their children’s exposure to unwanted touching or sex. Adults cannot control the sexual opportunities, risks, or coercion their children will encounter. However, parents and caregivers can be role models for self-care and mutual respect. And…
Session 9: Social Media

Interactive media define the social worlds of many children and most youth today. Because the youngest generation is always on the forefront of new modes of communication, kids may inhabit a social landscape that is a little (or a lot) unfamiliar to parents and caregivers. In this session,…
Session 10: Pornography

Sexual imagery is so prevalent in advertising, on television, and on the Internet that even young children are exposed to it, despite adult efforts to limit access. Whether they deliberately seek it or not, today’s children are likely to encounter Internet pornography before they become…
Session 11: Unintended Pregnancy

This session opens room for conversation around adolescent unintended pregnancy. While some parents and caregivers in this workshop may consider their children too young to face an unintended pregnancy, they, too, will benefit from a review of the options and the opportunity to prepare to support…
Session 12: Ethical Non-Monogamy

This session introduces relationships that are ethically non-monogamous or polyamorous. These terms refer to having consensual romantic relationships with more than one person at the same time. Participants will develop knowledge about polyamory and gain skills to discuss ethical non-monogamous…