Parent’s Guide Designed to Help in Teaching about Intimacy

Copies of A Parent’s Guide, a new Church publication designed to help parents learn how to teach their children about the many facets of intimate relationships, has been sent to priesthood leaders throughout English-speaking areas of the Church.

Each copy of the booklet was accompanied by a letter from President Howard W. Hunter, Acting President of the Council of the Twelve.

“We ask bishops to announce this new publication to all couples and single parents in your ward. It is [also] a student manual for those enrolled in the Family Relations course that is to be taught during the second quarter of 1986. Copies should be ordered in advance for those taking the Family Relations class. Extra copies should also be placed in the meetinghouse library for those who are unable to purchase a personal copy,” President Hunter wrote in the letter.

“The current Family Relations teacher’s manual deals only with husband-wife topics. A Parent’s Guide and the enclosed Instructor’s Notes will help expand the scope of the course to include parent-child topics,” he said.

All parents, not only those taking the Family Relations course, are encouraged to use the 52-page publication. It is designed to supplement information in the Family Home Evening Resource Book. It discusses basic principles of teaching children and offers specific guidance on teaching about intimate relationships.

The book recognizes in its introduction that “one of the most important concepts the Lord expects you to teach your children is the righteous meaning and use of intimate physical relations between a man and a woman. This guide was prepared to help you teach your children about these physical intimacies and to prepare them to follow the Lord’s plan in expressing their own intimacy.”

The introduction points out, however, that the term intimacy “does not limit itself to the intimacies of physical association.” It explains that intimacy is related to trust between two people or within a family, and that what children experience in their own homes as youngsters can prepare them to keep confidences and build trust in their own marriages later.

It acknowledges that single parents face additional challenges. Church leaders and programs are there to help, it says, but “no one can replace you in teaching your children. This guide will help you in most situations to fulfill your responsibility to teach your children about the Lord’s plan for human intimacy.”

The publication includes a chapter titled “Intimacy and the Purposes of Earthly Families,” one on “Principles for Teaching Children,” and four additional chapters keyed to different age ranges. These latter four can help parents deal with their children’s needs for intimacy from infancy to approximately three years, from four to eleven years, during the twelve-to-eighteen adolescent years, and as their children face courtship and marriage in young adulthood.

Among the materials in these chapters are suggestions on how to teach children to understand and appreciate their physical bodies and how to help them learn to overcome the temptations associated with physical intimacy. There are also suggestions on how to help them prepare for wholesome social relationships, how to help them see the need for developing spiritual power at the same time their bodies are developing, and how to teach them what to look for in a potential eternal companion. (For more information on the book, see the interview with Larry L. Whiting in this news section.)

A Parent’s Guide can be ordered from the distribution centers. The stock number is PBIC0507; the price is $1.25.