When we have a baby, we automatically accept that we will have to teach this little glob of a baby, to eat, to go to the toilet, to speak and to behave. Mostly though, we expect that teaching the basics will be done once they are into school, and they will be on their way to education bliss, taught by someone else.
But ….. the lessons never end.  Adolescence throws up some lovely challenges.
With the daughter, of course the start of menstruation means that we have a whole new realm of cleanliness we have to teach.  And with girls being so much more informed and open about their bodies now, there is a tendency for my darling child to want to discuss every detail with me ….. in detail ….. over and over. I never enjoyed it that much when I had a uterus, and my own shyness is still firmly entrenched …. so its a struggle to be informative and open.
With the son, I am encountering a new set of lessons that need to be learnt. Deodorant is an every day thing, not just when you feel like it.  Boy bits must be washed well, or else.  No I don’t want to know what happens when underarm hair gets caught in the roll on top. If you experiment with your sister’s electric razor on your leg the skin will get itchy.  Why did you shave your legs anyway? On second thoughts, no I don’t want to know.
I know I should be enjoying this part of their lives, but its stretching my shyness boundaries big time. I am dreading sexual maturity.
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