How to talk to your kids about sex

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How to talk to your kids about sex

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My poor mother had a very precocious child on her hands. I don’t know if she was quite prepared to talk about sex. And I don’t know if any of us are quite prepared to talk about sex. And I have to say, I was watching a movie the other day where this mother inappropriately wants to talk a little too much about sex to her child who’s a little bit too young for the conversation and it was all just too funny. I think it is one of those subjects that we all feel a little self-conscious about. Turn the lights on? Turn the lights off? We’re not sure. But in the moment of my relationship with my mother, she was not prepared I don’t think to see me rolling around the house with a turtleneck on in the middle of summer. And so she said, roll down your turtleneck. And I said, why? And she said, come upstairs right now. The living room was full of kids. And I rolled down my turtleneck, and there were hickies all along my neck. And she sent everyone out of the house. And she said, get in the car. And I said, where are we going? And she said, planned parenthood. And I was like, I just have a hickey on my neck. She said, you don’t just have a hickey. You had sex. I said, I had sex. I started crying. She said, if you’re old enough to have sex, you’re old enough to be responsible about sex. So I wasn’t prepared for this conversation. And frankly I don’t think you’re prepared to be sexually active, but I guess now we have to go be accountable about our bodies and about sex. And that was always my mothers’ MO. And I have to say looking at a lot of my friends and their parenting, I think the ones I admire most are the ones who know for a fact that they need help in their parenting. That there are people, mentors, coaches, and shrinks, and people, aunts, uncles, grandparents, this whole village of people that we are so blessed to have available to us can become so valuable to us as parents, because guess what? Your kid is going to talk maybe more openly with your sister or your husband’s brother than you. And they will have these other relationships. So to create that opening for them to have that communication with people that they’re not going to be judged, embarrassed, or criticized by, not that that’s what we’re doing as parents, but by nature, we’re the disciplinarian, the guider. So that was one of those moments when my mom created an opportunity for me to have an outside source, for me to be very honest with. And she left the room. And she walked out and gave me my privacy to become accountable, informed, responsible. And I didn’t have sex after that for like years. Yeah.

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Elisabeth Rohm

Mom, Actress, Author

Seen to many as a supermom, actress Elisabeth Röhm has been successfully juggling a full time job as a mother and actress over the past few years. Not only is she a successful film and T.V star, she also has a published book, and a weekly celebrity mom blog on People.com that reaches over a million readers—it is amazing that she stays beautiful, healthy and positive while managing to be consistently by her daughter’s side. Currently, Elisabeth plays "Amanda" on the new CBS TV series Stalker.
 
These past couple years were eventful as Röhm was seen in several feature films. She starred in Warner Bros.’ thriller Transit across James Caviezel, produced by Joel Silver. She teamed up with Kyra Sedgwick and Vincent Donofrio in Chlorine. Elisabeth shot the Lionsgate feature by Brian A. Miller, title Officer Down, as well as Darkroom, an independent feature directed by Britt Napier and produced by Michael A. Liberty and Ron Stein (The Kids Are Alright). Last year, Elisabeth also starred in David O. Russell’s critically acclaimed film, American Hustle, co-starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Lawrence. Röhm, along with her cast won the SAG Outstanding Performance by a cast in a Motion Picture Award. 
 
Elisabeth was also seen on the Lifetime TV Show, The Client List, as “Taylor Berkhalter”. Her character is a mother who is in continuous competition with Riley (Jennifer Love Hewitt). She also has written a book, Baby Steps: Having the Child I Always Wanted (Just Not as I Expected), that came out just last year. Elisabeth has always been very open about her struggles getting pregnant and going through the challenges of IVF. The book tells the often hidden truth behind infertility. As she struggled with infertility, she kept it to herself, but now for the first time she reveals the whole story, learning about and accepting her infertility, the disappointment, the stress and the shame. 
 
Born in Europe, yet a U.S. citizen, Röhm was raised in New York City. Her first childhood interest was riding horses, for which she trained intensively. By the time she entered Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, her goals shifted to writing in the form of fiction and history. It was during college when Röhm fell in love with acting. After receiving her degree, she quickly found work on the soap opera One Life to Live and followed it up with a long line of recurring appearances on the WB television show, Angel. However, most know Röhm best as the “A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn” on the NBC staple series, Law & Order where Dick Wolf, creator/producer of Law & Order praised her as “one of the finest young actresses working in television.” She went on to star as “Alex Mason,” a love interst to Michael Vartan’s character, in the ABC drama Big Shots and later returned to NBC as a new addition to the cast of the cult-favorite Heroes.
 
Röhm has also starred in numerous films including Abduction alongside Taylor Lautner and Sigourney Weaver, Miss Congeniality 2, starring Sandra Bullock, and Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry.  She starred in Kreutzer Sonata, an independent project co-starring Danny Huston and starred opposite James Caan in the film Barry Minkow. You can expect great things from her entering the next couple years. 
 
The desire to seek new challenges is not unusual for someone so multi-talented. Röhm is writing a cookbook (brilliantly titled “The Wooing of the gay Man and the Actress”) as she loves to cook, sings, and continues to ride horses; she also includes hiking, biking, skiing, yoga, traveling and studying architecture among her hobbies. Being that she believes in health and being active, she is developing a gym franchise and has already invested in Circuit Works located in Brentwood, CA and is a co-owner for a juice bar called REJUICE located in Santa Monica. She supports The Red Cross, The Go Red Foundation, Healthy Child Healthy World and as a whole does what she can to support children and women in need globally.
 
Röhm welcomed her first child, a girl named Easton, on April 10, 2008. She retains residences in New York, Venice, CA, and in Holland.
 
More Parenting Videos from Elisabeth Rohm >
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