Sex Ed for the Stroller Set

• National Parenting Product Award Winner, 2023

Sex Ed for the Stroller Set gives parents practical tools to proactively teach young children about sexuality and the confidence to use these tools.

When adults bring intention and thoughtfulness to providing sexual health education to their young children, they can establish healthy attitudes toward sexuality and prepare their children and themselves for sexual topics that will arise in later years. While there are many books on sexual health written for parents of teens and young adults, there are very few written for parents of young children. But the early years are crucial to sexual health, and what parents do and say is of the utmost importance.

This book, written for parents or other primary caregivers who are raising a child under the age of six, shows how to provide essential information about sexuality, bodies, and behavior in age-appropriate but thorough and accurate language. It helps parents prepare for conversations that might make them uncomfortable by supplying not only the necessary information but also specific phrases and words they can use when speaking to their young children, while also helping parents process their own anxieties around sex.

A parent is their child's best sex ed teacher. By providing reliable, straightforward information about sexuality, parents can establish open, honest relationships with their children, help protect them from harm, and set them up for healthy, fulfilling, and pleasurable sex lives and relationships as adults.

Introduction: Sex Ed Begins at Birth

Part I: What You Need to Know First

• Chapter 1: What Is Sexuality?
• Chapter 2: Parental Self-Awareness: History, Feelings, and Values
• Chapter 3: Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology
• Chapter 4: Gender and Sexual Orientation
• Chapter 5: Child Sexual Abuse: Prevention and response

Part II: The Ages and Stages of Teaching Sexual Health During Early Childhood

• Chapter 6: Infants (Birth Through 12 Months Old)
• Chapter 7: Toddlers (1 Through 3 Years Old)
• Chapter 8: Kindergarteners (4 Through 6 Years Old)
• Chapter 9: In the Moment: Responding to Surprising Questions and Situations
• Chapter 10: What Comes Next

Resources

Index

About the Authors

Laura Hancock, PhD, has been studying sexuality from different perspectives for over 20 years. While in graduate school, she did research on reproductive and stress endocrinology and enjoyed teaching undergraduates. Later, Dr. Hancock completed training to teach sexual health education to elementary, middle, and high school students.

In this process, she found that information was lacking for children in early childhood and set out to provide such resources. Toward this end, she developed her own curriculum to teach parents and caregivers of children from infancy through kindergarten and began teaching through private classes and speaking engagements.

Karen Rayne, PhD, has studied and worked in education for over 20 years, with the last 15 of them focusing on sexual development and sexuality education. Dr. Rayne's PhD is in educational psychology. The majority of her professional work has been in writing for and training sexuality education professionals and writing about sexuality for youth and adult lay readers. She has published two books with Magination Press.

Dr. Rayne is the executive director of a small nonprofit, UNHUSHED, where she creates resources to support lifespan sexuality education. They are publishing a curriculum for preschoolers (3-year-olds) through 5th graders. This positions their organization as publishing materials for the youngest children currently available.

• National Parenting Product Award Winner, 2023

Helping kids have a healthy relationship with sex and their bodies starts when they’re young. But as a parent sometimes I don’t know what to say or how to say it! In this book, Dr. Laura Hancock and Dr. Karen Rayne offer an informative, practical, and readable guide to navigating this tricky area. I learned a lot from this book and feel empowered to have better conversations with my children.
—Debbie Sorenson, Phd, Cohost of Psychologists off the Clock Podcast and Author of Act For Burnout and Act Daily Journal

Sex Ed for the Stroller Set is a precious gift to families, children, and educators everywhere. In a culture where “sex ed” for young children is so often reduced to the notion of “The Talk,” Hancock and Rayne brilliantly capture—page by page by page—the countless ways that supporting healthy sexual development resides in the daily living experiences within families and schools and as an integral part of a child’s ongoing physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.
—Deborah M. Roffman, MS, CSE, CFLE, Human Sexuality Educator, Author, and Consultant

Those of us who’ve worked in the sexuality field have long observed that young people and adults who have a childhood with thoughtful and comfortable bodies, relationships, sex and boundaries information, and parenting usually have much better outcomes than those who don’t. Positive parenting in this department is something we know tends to result in more fulfilling and comfortable sexual lives, healthier and more beneficial relationships, better body image and boundaries, and real ownership and understanding of one’s own sexual agency, autonomy, and identity. Many parents and caregivers want to provide all of this and more for children, but they don’t know how, or they feel so overwhelmed or intimidated that they freeze up even trying to start. Enter Sex Ed for the Stroller Set and the incredible wealth of information and empathetic coaching Karen and Laura provide within its pages. Sex Ed for the Stroller Set is holistic and rich while also being very easy to read and digest. You’ll find information about childhood sexual development by stages and sexuality, self-awareness help for yourself, and other vital basics like anatomy, gender, orientation, boundaries, and abuse prevention and awareness, presented in practical, useful, and actionable ways. I feel certain every reader of this book will feel more knowledgeable, confident, and comfortable as a parent sex educator than they imagined they could before they found it.
—Heather Corinna, Author and Founder of Scarleteen

A comprehensive guide to answering young children’s questions about sexuality. Perfect for parents who want to tackle sexual health topics during their child’s early years.
—Library Journal