From Diapers to Dating : A Parent's Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children - Softcover

Debra W. Haffner, M.P.H., has been president and CEO of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, since 1988. At the forefront of sexuality education for more than twenty-five years, she is a Fellow of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, has a masters in Public Health from the Yale University School of Medicine, and is currently a student at Union Theological Seminary. She and husband Ralph Tartaglione are parents of a fourteen-year-old daughter, Alyssa, who contributed a foreword to her mother's book, and a six-year-old son, Gregory.

Much needed help for floundering parentsa clear-eyed assist with deciding what sexual values to impart to children, and then advice on coupling those values with accurate, age-appropriate information. Haffner, a long-time sex educator and president of the Sexualtiy Information and Education Council of the US (SIECUS), has a 13-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son, so her advice is above all reality-based. She has a good handle on the practical basics of having a sexually healthy family: first and foremost, parents must be clear on their own values (discussion questions and questionaires here help readers work this out), and the lines of communication between parents and children must be kept wide open (yes, it's a lot of work, and again, there is practical help offered here). Haffner goes on to address the ever-shifting issues by age group birth to 2 years, 2-to-5-year-old preschoolers, ages 5-to-8 and then 9-to-12-year-olds. There is a lot to think about here, and Haffner pulls no punches: ``I do not believe that children can protect themselves from sexual abuse,'' she says. Prevention programs such as ``Good touch, bad touch,'' and ``No, Go, Tell'' ``are based on the assumption that the child has the social or physical power to stop an adult pedophile's actions, something that is unlikely to be true.'' Realistic, practical, and informativethe best kind of guide for being a better parent. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.