At a barbecue this weekend, my friends and I struck up an interesting conversation about sex. It started with some dialogue about when is the right time to have that “birds and the bees” discussion with your kids. (A great resource is birdsnbeesconnection.com!) Truly an awkward moment in any parent’s life. I remember my oldest daughter was close to 11 when I finally worked up the nerve to talk to her. It was awkward because she still believed in Santa. How can you possibly discuss intercourse with a young girl who still believes in tooth fairies and Santa?? Anyway, we got through it and her eyes have been opened.

So at the BBQ, this topic segued into a little “share time,” as each of us told the group how he or she first learned about sex. One 45-year-old guy said he got his education by reading soft-porn stories in “Forum” and “Hustler” magazines. Monica, who’s in her 30s, said her mom talked to her when she was 9. They talked easily about everything. Dwight (37 years old) never talked to anyone about it – not his brother, mother, father or friends – and said he just figured it out on his own. Steve said his parents sat him down when he was just 6 and educated him with the help of a tell-all illustrated book. Six?? That was pretty bold of his parents.

My mother never talked to me. I learned about sex off the streets. In the summer of Seventh Grade, the kids in my neighborhood, ranging in ages 13-17, would get together every night in Steve Christian’s front yard. Invariably, no matter what was being discussed in the early evening always led to talk about sex by the end of the night. I didn’t get it at first, so I would just listen. The older ones told the dirty jokes, and by the end of the summer, I had pieced together enough of these jokes and frat-boy comments to understand the whole sex scenario. I was quite naive up until that summer. I used to think French kissing was when people kissed someone cheek-to-cheek – like they do in Europe.

So tell us . . . how did you first learn about sex? Or are you still trying to figure it out?