A MUM says she has started teaching her two and three-year-old kids about sex as she thinks youngsters need to learn early.
Caroline Hemmingham has already begun outlining the birds and the bees to her two toddlers in a bid to "normalise" the subject.
After reading a parenting book from the 1950s, she says it opened her eyes to the importance of talking about sex with youngsters.
The mum-of-two took heed of a few suggestions in 'The Intelligent Parents' Manual' – especially the section on discussing the facts of life.
It advised giving children as young as three a "general idea" of sex without associating something "forbidden" with the subject.
The book also tells parents to "volunteer the information" if their child hasn't asked where babies come from by age five.
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It says the sooner they are aware of sex, kids will simply "take the facts of birth with the same unconcern with which he accepts other natural phenomena, such as wind, rain, and sun."
And Caroline stands firmly behind the reproductive rule after her awkward experience of sex education at school – or lack thereof.
She told HullLive: "Sex is, let's face it, one of the most natural things in the world – so why would we not talk about it with our children from a young age?
"I feel like the general consensus is to wait until kids start going through puberty to try and sit down and have 'the chat' – which could not be more awkward, for the child or the parent."
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She explained the only sex education she could recall experiencing was when she was in year five and forced to watch a cringeworthy clip.
Caroline said: "The whole class was sat in front of a TV and shown a video where a man and woman were walking about in their home starkers.
"There would be arrows pointing to all the 'rude' body parts.
"As you can imagine, everyone was in fits of giggles and the (male) teacher was sat at the front cross-legged looking utterly humiliated."
So to help avoid any embarrassing future similar encounters for her two children, Caroline wants to arm them with the knowledge early.
She claims to have already begun explaining periods to her three-year-old daughter so she isn't "embarrassed or confused" later on in life.
Sex is, let's face it, one of the most natural things in the world – so why would we not talk about it with our children from a young age?
And following the advice of the Parents Manual, she has already asked both her son and daughter if they know where babies come from.
Caroline continued: "My three-year-old said "the charity shop at Northpoint" and my two-year-old just gave me a blank expression.
"This is something I feel quite passionately about and I truly believe that the more we normalise these things the less chance there will be of our children going behind our backs and getting themselves into situations later on."
The mum's discussion of her candid stance on sex comes as parents in Wales slammed government plans to make sex education in schools compulsory for kids aged three to 16.
The new scheme would mean that parents will no longer be able to remove their children from sex education lessons.
A group by the name of Public Child Protection Wales has even launched legal action in wake of the proposal.
Campaigner Lucia Thomas said there was a "progressive, aggressive lobby which is seeking to push onto children and young people ideologies which parents would find inappropriate."
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But Caroline suggested the plans to rejig the boundaries of sex education and enforce it "can only be a good thing".
She added: "I'm not talking about describing to a preschooler the actual ins and outs (ahem) of sex, but if kids are brought up with less embarrassment and secrecy around the subject surely they'll be less likely to rebel and go off and find out for themselves later on?"
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