“Sex education, including its spiritual aspects, should be part of a broad health and moral education…, ideally carried out harmoniously by parents and teachers.”
BENJAMÍN SPOCK
Adolescents: Sexual Awakening
The morphology and physiology of the body undergo a great deal of changes during adolescence due to the development of the sex glands.
As a consequence of these changes, young people have certain thoughts about their bodies and their person, wondering if they will look attractive to others. The importance of the opinion of others arises then, what their peers will think, how they will look at them….
The fact that they become aggressive and annoying with adults is normal and is due to the fact that internally they live a struggle to find their place in society. It exists, sexually, as a mourning of childhood sexual fantasies, they are growing up and therefore the loss of their childhood generates mixed feelings that usually lead to depression.
The adolescent is trying to form his own identity and for this he usually looks for idols and models with which he can identify himself. It is important that adults, especially parents, keep in mind that the adolescent needs to see facts and not words, it will be the actions that show him the way and encourage him in his progress. The contradiction of the adolescent arises from this need, on the one hand they seek freedom, separation from their parents, and on the other hand they ask for limits by rebelling against their elders.
Sexuality will also experience this paradox: on the one hand the moral values in which he was educated and at the same time the desire to live pleasure, to satisfy hedonism. The best way to help him grow up is to let him go through the stage and get to know his reactions as well as his needs.
Rebellion will be practically inevitable, therefore it is not convenient to be stricter than normal, what the adolescent least wants is to continue to be treated as a child, but to be understood as a being who has not yet found his place.
How should parents act?
Most teens have had sex by the time they are 18, which is why it is so important for parents to start talking to their children about these issues early.
Some parents believe that their sons, but especially their daughters, should wait until they have a formal partner or even until marriage to have sex; however, when the dialogue is established, they do not dare to express the reasons why they think that way. Other parents, on the other hand, see sex as just another need and don’t give it any importance.
Ideally, parents and children should sit down and talk about sex. Otherwise, children live sex as something taboo, forbidden. Talking about sex is a way of accepting that children are no longer children.
