My experience was the same as everyone else's here: strict christian upbringing, not talking about things because they're "bad", and making up answers to things mum and dad don't know.

I'm trying to figure out parenting now. My plan, and I'm sure it won't survive contact with the enemy, is to be as open, thorough, and honest as I can be about sex and drugs.

While it is scary for me, I do want my kids to experiment with these things, but I want them to do it with as much contextual information as I can provide.

"The talk" which I plan to give often, as commonly talked about house rules, is that there's two ways adolescents can inadvertently change the course of their lives: car accidents, and getting pregnant.