Moms, daughters and The Talk

Did your mom talk to you about sex when you were a teenager?

I think my mom tried. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: Where are you going?

Me: Out.

Mom: Will there be boys there?

Me: (eye roll)

Mom: Make sure you leave room for the Holy Spirit and be home by 11.

Me: MAAAAAAA-UM!

O, Oprah Magazine and Seventeen magazine recently teamed up to survey moms of daughters ages 15-22 and girls in that same age bracket and discovered some interesting things:  

• More than half (56%) of the girls who are no longer virgins say they’ve had sex without any form of birth control and two-thirds of them (66%) have kept it a secret from Mom.
• Nearly one-third (30%) of the 15 to 18-year olds in the survey have had oral sex; about double the number mothers of girls in that age group know about—or even suspect (14%).
• About one-quarter (26%) of girls say having The Talk with their mothers has made them practice (or plan to practice) safe sex. The same number said it made them wait (or plan to wait) longer to have it.
• 18% of girls said having The Talk made them use (or plan to use) hormonal birth control.

For more on the survey, check out the latest issues of the magazines or go here.

What about you? If you're a mom or a daughter, how has The Talk gone for you? What did you say or hear? What do you WISH you'd said or heard?

We'll gather up the most helpful/poignant/excruciating responses in time for Mother's Day.

Charlotte Sutton, health and medicine editor

[photo: Photos.com]