A recent national study was released describing the prevalence of sexual harassment that middle and high school aged kids experience. Sadly, half of all kids reported that they felt harassed through verbal comments via texts, the internet or face to face. I’m not surprised. But what I am glad to see is that kids who are hearing or reading sexual comments are telling us that they are occurring but more importantly, that these comments bother them. This, to me is the most telling news of all.

We parents live with the belief that sexual language is out there and that, while our kids hear it every day, it’s just part of life. We worry about what our kids hear at school and fear that there’s very little that we can do about it. Our culture is so saturated with sexual messages that most of us feel overwhelmed when it comes to helping our kids navigate through them with any sense of modesty intact. So when I hear that kids are bothered by sexual comments, my heart leaps. Kids are telling us that they don’t like so much sexual talk- particularly when it is directed at them.

Our job as parents…