We were lucky to catch up with Jodi Kaye recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jodi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Well, first and foremost, I’m a mom to three amazing girls. When our oldest daughter was about 8 years old, it hit me that we were getting ready to start a time of growth and change unlike any I had ever encountered as a mother. My baby was going to start turning into a young woman and how on earth was I supposed to get her ready for this and figure out how to talk to her about any of this? Of course the first thing I did was look to Google. “How to talk to your kids about puberty and sex.” Sure, there were some books and resources but what I couldn’t find was how to actually TALK in a productive way with my daughters so they would come to me. Then of course, I went to my girlfriends. Did any of them have any experience or advice they could share? Because we were all mostly parenting the same aged children…crickets! No one had any advice. At this point, I had been a nurse for over a decade, delivering babies for most of my career. While sitting with a patient one day teaching her how to care for her newborn infant after going home, I realized that I really really loved the teaching part of my nursing career. So, putting this and that together, I realized that this was a niche that no one had really tapped into at this point. There were no resources for parents for this exact dilemma. I loved to teach, I LOVE being a nurse, why not do them both together. My goal was to come up with a way to incorporate parents into these talks so that kids weren’t just getting the information alone. All parents know the age old answer to the question, “What did you learn about today?” always comes back with the response, “Nothing.” Bringing parents into these discussions was one of the most important parts of this for me. Not only to teach kids and parents how to communicate about these topics, but also to show them that these topics don’t have to be hard to communicate about. Plus, there was the whole part that kids really should get their values and beliefs from their family and not from other sources. My goal has always been to provide factual information in our discussions so that once parents and kids learn how to talk about this stuff, parents get the privilege of providing all of the good stuff that relates to one’s own family’s beliefs as so many families feel differently about all of these topics. I have since created my classes to solve the problem of getting over the taboo of talking to kids about puberty and sex and growing up, because if it is done correctly, giving kids the information they need to grow up safely in all aspects of life, allows them to make healthy decisions and not ones based off of hormones and sexual drives/desires. Parents today have almost become paralyzed when it comes to talking to our children about puberty and sex due to our own fear of saying the wrong thing, thinking that talking about it will encourage it, fear that our children will repeat what we say and teach their friends, or out of fear of scaring or hurting our children by telling them the truth. What we don’t realize is that when we educate our children, we remove their need to seek out information and we boost their self esteem and confidence by helping them to not be the one kid who doesn’t understand what others are talking about. Many parents hold off on this conversation thinking that they are protecting their child’s innocence. The reality is that giving children facts about sexuality doesn’t rob them of their innocence at all. A child who understands that sex is an act that expresses love and connection retains his or her innocence. Whereas, the child who knows very little about it, can be harmed by looking for answers outside of family connections. So, I decided to create classes for elementary and middle school aged kids, that are fun and factual, and actually educate kids (and parents) about how our bodies change and why we don’t need to be afraid of any of this. I have seen kids walk into my classes literally in tears because they don’t want to be there to finishing our time together sharing personal stories with the group with smiles on their faces. I absolutely LOVE what I do.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a Registered Nurse for over 20 years. Most of my nursing career has focused on women and children’s health issues. I specialized in Obstetrics and Perinatal Bereavement for over 15 years and I have also worked in the medical/surgical specialty as well.

I think I mostly answered this in the last question but can add:

I provide age appropriate classes to children and parents together to help them learn that talking about these subjects can actually be easy while learning some really important information. Classes are divided by age and gender so that kids are learning the information that pertains to them throughout the stages of growing up.

I am most proud of the feedback I get from parents after taking my classes. I have heard from many parents that their daughters started their periods and because of our class, they were actually excited about it and not scared at all. I was once contacted by a mom who shocked me by sharing that shortly after taking our class, her son was diagnosed with cancer and they had to have a very difficult discussion about sperm preservation. She told me that she never expected that our class would ever help with something like this in their lives but because of our discussions, her son was able to much better understand the difficult decisions he had to discuss at such a young age. It is stories like this that fill me up and make me want to be able to reach more people. Imagine the gift we are giving our children by educating them about all aspects of growing up instead of avoiding conversations because they are difficult. We could change the stigma and the shame that has been associated with our bodies and sexuality for decades. Regardless of whether a parent wants to educate their child about abstinence or safe sex, someday, our children will become sexual beings involved with other sexual beings. They will need this information at some point in their lives, so if we give them this essential information early on, we can be in charge of the picture that is painted for them and whether it is a healthy one or not.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first started teaching, I was ready to go! I was expecting hundreds of people to jump on board, eager to figure out how to talk to their kids, NEEDING this information. After all, everyone NEEDS this information. Or so I thought. I learned very early on that this stigma associated with talking to our kids about puberty and sexuality was a BIG stigma. One that many parents didn’t actually think they wanted to take on. For my entire 10 years of teaching these classes, I am still trying to change the dialogue that surrounds these subjects. My business card says, “We believe in a world where no subject is taboo.” I am still fighting this one today trying to get people to unlearn the decades of abstinence only education that has been proven over and over again to NOT work. I will continue to fight this one to show parents that talking to our kids is beneficial and helpful in order to help them grow into educated adults who can communicate about hard things.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I have been able to build my reputation with my business by delivering high quality classes that provide parents and children a way to connect in a fun and educational way. I am passionate about providing the best quality classes that I can provide and am always looking for suggestions to improve. I regularly ask clients for feedback that can help me to grow my business in a way that benefits all families, genders, beliefs, values, and thoughts. The best compliment I can receive is a word of mouth referral from a client that had a positive experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theritesofpassage.biz
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theritesofpass/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ritesofpassageaz

Image Credits
Jennifer Bowen