When she was smaller, I used to take the opportunity that she was trapped in the kayak to make her recite her multiplication tables.
Tonight, we had another kind of talk. For today in school, they got the second part of the Talk. Which shouldn’t be called the Talk actually. It should be called the Showing of the Video Followed By An Embarrassed Silence.
I asked Mimi if there were any questions from her or the rest of her class after the Showing of the Video Followed By An Embarrassed Silence.
But there were none.
After watching it, they were actually given the video to take home, and encouraged to watch it again with their parents and discuss it afterwards.
So that’s what we did while paddling. Without watching the video of course, my kayak is not that well equipped. But Mimi gave me a pretty good description of the content.
And we had a nice frank chat, and I explained to her that sex is not half as disgusting or off-putting as suggested by an animated cross-cut diagram of a penis entering a vagina. That it is actually quite a special moment, quite a sensual rather than sexual moment, and that it is not a chore at all, to the contrary, that most people go to great lengths to create the opportunity for that moment, up to and including taking a work colleague on a first date to a jazz concert and drinking overpriced warm prosecco from plastic cups.
Then she told me that all her colleagues were totally grossed out at the thought of their parents having sex. And I told her that it was normal.
And I asked her if she found the thought of Mum and Dad having sex disturbing and she said yes, totally so. And I told her that it was normal. And that Mum too found it totally disturbing, and that it was normal.
What I also told her is that the thought of sexual intercourse would not always accompanied by a feeling of embarrassment or dread. And that it will be nice. Very nice. Nicer than in a cut-out diagram of a penis entering a vagina.
And that she should always feel free to discuss the subject with me, if she had any questions or thoughts or doubts, that I am already used to having the Talk with Luca, and that I have always answered all his questions.
And there were quite a few.
