Andrewzoom. It is not 'mission impossible' at all. When children are well informed of all their choices, there are those who choose abstinance till marraige. I personally know many who have chose this path, including a beautiful buddist Sri Lanken friend.

My nephew and his girlfriend waited.

I have 6 children, they grew up on a farm and have known about sex since a young age, they have watched animal and helped deliver babies ( animals of course).

It has never been embarrassing and they all freely talk about it. They have been taught that there is nothing wrong with being curious and discussing what is happening with their bodies. It's just natural.

Abstinence/Too Tell them or not to tell them/What to tell them and When
I don't know of any teenager who is ready for the emotional stuff involved in being sexually active. Yeah, some kids wait because they choose to out of fear, respect for themselves, religion... Whatever the reason for abstaining, I applaud them. But, we all know those "tingling feelings" we get when we are around someone we really like. Those feelings are NATURAL. Some kids are going to act on them. I'd rather see a kid well ARMED with INFORMATION about how to protect his/herself. How many of us said "hey mom/dad, my boy/girlfriend and I are going to have sex at 7:42pm on March 8th", none of us, cause we didn't know.

I started teaching my son correct terms when he was old enough to say the words clearly. :No that is not your wee wee, it is called your penis. As his questions progressed in the years that came, I always tried to figure out exactly what it was he was asking, before answering. Didn't want to give up too much info too soon, the boys' mind may not have been ready.

As for when is the right time to become sexually active, that depends on the individual. Some 35 and 40 yr. olds still can't handle intimacy and the emotions that can be involved.

Bottom line, if a parent is uncomfortable having "the" conversation, find a trusted adult to have the talk. Don't let someone you don't know give your kid this type info. And please, don't do like my mom. She gave me these 3 books "The Lifecycle". I had more questions after reading than I did before I read the book. Thank goodness for my 6th and 7th grade teachers. I could have been fooled by some halfway cute, sly fella.