Sex Ed for the Stroller Set: How to Have Honest Conversations with Young Children

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.

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, UN|HUSHED, 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.