Help Your Child Feel Comfortable Confiding in You
Simple ways to show your kids that they can talk to you about anything
I grew up in a home where you didn’t talk about things like sex, religion, or politics.
My entire childhood was like a stiff, polite dinner party — the kind where it just wasn’t appropriate to ask too many questions or explore too deeply the tough and embarrassing issues so many kids and families struggle with.
We would discuss conflicts here and there, but only once they became impossible to ignore, and only at a very superficial level. It’s like my older sister and I were put on a need-to-know basis.
We could always tell how uncomfortable our mom and dad felt when it came to discussing the more squeamish topics.
For example, we knew Mom had an issue with depression and anxiety. But we weren’t privy to the details behind her three suicide attempts or her intermittent week-long stays at the psych ward. Dad summarized it as a combination of her “rough childhood” and mental health condition, which she was taking medication for and working to make better. And that, believe it or not, was way more than Mom had to say about it.
And when it came to sex, puberty, and my developing female body, everything was kept pretty…
