It is one of the most difficult, yet important conversations that needs to take place in family life ”“and potentially one of the most embarrassing. It’s the sex and relationships discussion between parents and teenagers. But now a novel approach to ease the awkwardness of these conversations has just been developed by a joint Church and Health Trust group looking at young people and sexual health.
The Faith sub-group of the Belfast Area Sexual Health Project Board has recently produced a relationships resource, entitled ”˜Unique’, for both young people and their parents that is user-friendly and easy to work through. However it is how this resource is used that will give a new approach to conversations on difficult issues.
Read it all and see what you think of the accompanying website.
On the whole it seems rather good. The graphics are simple and in now way detract from the message. The panels are short, and generally on the right pathway. Addressing the overarching issues of love and true friendship strikes me as an effective meta-context.
A couple of things I might have done in addition … something about walking near cliffs (there are plenty of them in Ireland) where sudden winds can push you over the edge. Also, something along the lines of “Girls often play at sex, for which they’re not ready, to get what they really want, which is love. Boys play at love, for which [i]they[/i] are not ready, to get what they really want, which is … ? That’s why it’s almost always the girl who gets burnt.”
The strongest point of the program, IMO, is that it repeatedly steers youth towards dialogue with parents in the matter.
One minor point for American readers who make it to the last panel: a “GP” is “general practioner,” IOW a family physician.