The 'awkward' conversation Tom and Elise Elliott will have with their daughter their parents didn't have with them
By Bronte Gossling|
Tom and Elise Elliott ?are talking about sex, baby.
The Melbourne radio hosts ?today discussed a recent The Age article about the importance of sex education without shame, and that led to the couple getting candid about their own sex education experiences จC or lack thereof.
"I hate to contradict the article, but I do feel some shame when it comes to talking about the science of human reproduction," 3AW Drive host Tom Elliott said today on the podcast The Elliott Exchange.
L?isten in the video above.
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"How did we even have a child, was it Immaculate Conception?" Elise Elliott joked to her husband, who responded jokingly responded, "I don't know, I don't remember."
Tom, who shares daughter Ava with Elise, said it was in a Year 10 science class in 1983 when ?his teacher, Mr. Bentley, drew what Tom thought at the time was "quite a complicated diagram" on the classroom's blackboard, of the reproductive organs and explained each organ's function.
"I remember looking at it?, and I put up my hand and said, 'Sir, Sir, in that diagram there, Sir, where do you put it?'" Tom said, making Elise laugh.
"And my whole class erupted with laughter. At my 30-year school reunion, these three people who were present in the class came up to me and ?remembered that time."
?Tom recalled that the diagram wasn't one that was very good, and revealed he's not sure that Year 10 science class was the best way to learn about sex.
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"I think in our day, talking about sex and reproduction was so, so archaic," Elise says, recalling how she was taught when she was younger, "Daddy has the seed, Mummy has the egg" จC and that was that, until her "ratbag" neighbour asked, "Yeah, but how does the seed get to the egg?"
"And I remember thinking, 'Good question,'" Elise says. She says she remembered seeing her mum and dad kissing and suggesting to a group of friends, when she was 17, it was through kissing, and they all laughed at her ?จC so she went to the library to borrow a book to learn about it to avoid further embarrassment.
"In 1985 I was sitting with my father watching the football replay on a Saturday night and [he said] 'Now I know you're going out with a girl. Don't do anything stupid'. And that was that!" Tom continued of his sex education.
"I remember thinking, 'So what exactly does he mean? Do it? Don't it? Use contraception?'" he continued. "So that was the extent of my sex education from my parents, so, a complicated diagram on the blackboard in Year 10 by the science teacher, followed by a strict set of instructions from my father."
Elise then reflected on the couple's experience with modern sex education resources, saying the materials their daughter was given by school were a lot more detailed, comprehensive and direct จC something Elise said she thinks is a "good thing."
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"Well, that's good, that means when the time comes, you can have that awkward discussion with our daughter," Tom said.
"And you'll say?" Elise promoted her husband, who joked, "Don't do anything stupid."
?The Elliott Exchange is where Elise and her other half, top-rating 3AW Drive host Tom Elliott, exchange ideas on news, media, parenting, relationships and everything in between.
New episodes drop every Wednesday morning.
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