FOR PARENTS: Relationship Modeling & The Realities Of Sex for This Generation (Episode 7)
Originally Aired: September 26, 2023
"A lot of young kids do not even kiss anymore. They just go straight to sex because of the porn they have been watching. That is what is being modeled to them."
- Christina Morelli
Pass this along—someone might need it today. Share this episode.
Episode Summary
Certified relationship coach Christina Morelli and host Fatima Bey confront parents with the harsh reality of early childhood sexual exposure and the critical need for intentional relationship modeling. They dismantle the myth that parents can shield children from pornography and hypersexualized media, demanding that adults initiate shameless, age-appropriate conversations about consent and bodily autonomy long before puberty. The discussion forces parents to examine their own generational trauma and dating habits, emphasizing that failing to provide accurate sexual education guarantees children will learn dangerous misinformation from peers or the internet.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to Relationship Modeling and Teen Sex Realities
04:15
Defining Relationship Modeling and Living with Integrity
06:16
Examples of Poor Relationship Modeling for Children
10:29
Breaking Generational Trauma and Making Better Choices
16:49
The Shocking Reality of Early Sexual Exposure and Pornography
22:09
Why Parents Must Be the First to Discuss Sex and Consent
27:12
Overcoming Parental Discomfort to Have Shameless Conversations
37:08
The MindShifting Moment: Meeting Your Kids Halfway
Transcript
Fatima Bey (00:02.978)
Welcome to MindShift Power Podcast, a show for teenagers and the adults who work with them, where we have raw and honest conversations. I'm your host, Fatima Bey, the Mind Shifter.
Fatima Bey (00:21.112)
So on today's episode, we have with us Christina Morelli. Christina from Christina Morelli Coaching. She is out of North Carolina and she is a very passionate certified relationship coach and educator. And today we're going to talk about relationship modeling and the realities of sex for this generation. Now we're going to do something a little different today because today we are actually going to talk specifically to parents. So parents, listen up.
And if you're a teenager listening, you probably just gonna you probably just gonna yell at this the audio and say, preach your own sister. So Christine, how you doing today?
Christina Morelli (01:00.654)
I'm awesome, Fatima. How are you?
Fatima Bey (01:03.318)
I'm I'm pretty awesome. I'm really happy about d doing this episode. We had a lot of conversation, like really long conversation about doing this episode and and I'm really excited to to to do it. So Christine, let's start off by telling us more about what you do.
Christina Morelli (01:19.66)
Yeah, I am a relationship coach and educator. And I like to throw the word educator in there because there are a lot of aspects of relationships that are skills that can be developed. However, we were never formally taught how to do those specific skills. We are taught how skills to contribute to the workforce, but not how to actually have impactful, meaningful relationships. And different aspects of relationships that can be taught are communication, what active
Listening is. And although those are broad, they get broke, I break them down into ways that provide frameworks for people to then fill in the lines to make it a little bit easier every step of the way because relationships are complex. Humans are even more complex. So when you combine two people with different backgrounds, different values, it's really important to have those skills available to actually create a really strong.
bond between two people.
Fatima Bey (02:20.878)
Well isn't a relationship supposed be just about falling in love and great sex and that's it?
Christina Morelli (02:26.286)
I wish it was that easy, Fatima. I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately, no. If you want to actually have a healthy relationship that lasts a long time and you enjoy for a long time, right? There's there's one aspect of relationships where you're in a relationship but aren't really happy for it in that in that relationship. And that often is because we don't have the self-awareness or
The training around the skills of what it means to actually be able to sustain a really passionate long-term relationship. The trope and idea that after so much time we fall out of love or we lose interest in each other or we grow apart, all of that can actually be corrected at any point early on, or even in a deep long-term relationship to foster and nurture a more intentional, mindful relationship.
Fatima Bey (03:24.518)
Mm-hmm. Very, very true. I I just want to add a little sidebar there. I think sometimes people, when it comes to relationships, because they don't understand themselves or the purpose of a relationship, they're making the wrong choices with a mate in the first place. Picking somebody just because they're nice or sexy or have money. And those are all
Christina Morelli (03:41.208)
Absolutely.
Fatima Bey (03:48.15)
Those are all things and they do matter, but but they're not enough and they don't it doesn't mean that they match you.
Christina Morelli (03:55.244)
Yeah, absolutely. And the compatibility aspect s is so often overlooked. Oftentimes people confuse the initial chemistry between people as compatibility. And that is not true.
Fatima Bey (04:08.5)
I I completely agree. Yeah. Let's dive into what we really want to talk about. So tell the audience, and again, we're talking to parents specifically in this episode. So what is relationship modeling? What do we mean when we say that?
Christina Morelli (04:15.446)
Wait.
Christina Morelli (04:28.428)
What I think about when I think of relationship modeling is living with integrity in the sense of I'm going to participate in my relationships in the way that I would want my children to engage in relationships.
Fatima Bey (04:43.832)
Sorry, can you repeat that again for the people in the back? Yeah.
Christina Morelli (04:46.894)
It's living with integrity. It is you live, it's it's you engaging in relationships the way you would want your child to engage in relationships. So it starts with looking at yourself as a parent and
looking at the actions that you're doing. What are you living? What are your children seeing? What are your children experiencing? Even if it's not being seen, they are still experiencing the reverberations of what's happening within a relationship. And when you can live with the integrity of doing what you say you're going to do or what you're going to preach to your child to do, you can have more meaningful conversations with your children.
And avoid the well, you don't do that, or why do I have to do that, but you don't have to do that, right? And we fall into this trap of like, well, I'm an adult, I can do what I want, or things are different because I know more. That's not necessarily true. And your children are way more sensitive and attuned and observant than we give them credit for. And it's so smart, so smart.
Fatima Bey (06:02.104)
We don't have you're just a kid, you don't know nothing. They're soaking up everything that we do. Everything we do and everything we say, and they're learning from it. Can you let's talk about some examples of of what of what relationship modeling looks like.
Christina Morelli (06:06.806)
Everything we do.
Christina Morelli (06:16.608)
Absolutely. One thing that you talked about when we were preparing for this call was if you're bringing people home all of the time, different people. Why don't you share that and then I'll add my two cents.
Fatima Bey (06:31.096)
Sometimes we don't again as parents don't realize our children are learning about relationships from us, period. Good or bad, whatever we're doing. They're learning about what a healthy relationship does or does not look like. And sometimes they're learning about what a relationship doesn't look like. So we teach them what
or the value of a relationship by how we value them. So if we are just being a hoe and bringing home somebody every two weeks, and that's not a gendered word because there's some men hoes too. So we are just and I'm exaggerating a little bit, but if we are just bringing home, you know, a a different mate every couple of weeks or every other month we have a new boyfriend or girlfriend, that's bad. We're teaching them that relationships are shallow. We're teaching them that relationships aren't to be valued. I completely
understand you can date whoever you want and it is your prerogative to go out with as many people as you want and you just want a whole bunch of friends with benefits. Hey you're an adult that's your prerogative but it's you take it to another level when you bring them home in front of your kids. It teaches them you know it teaches them bad things. And I'll let you
Christina Morelli (07:36.63)
It's those patterns that you're talking about that we then bring into our adulthood. And we're not blaming the parents because what you as a parent are
Expressing through your actions, through your words, is likely what you were taught as a child yourself. So this goes back to generational training, or you can refer to it as generational trauma. And so it's not your fault, right? But you can break that cycle and start setting the new example. Another example I like to talk about is how do you fight with your partner? Right.
Fatima Bey (08:14.83)
Talk about it.
Christina Morelli (08:16.712)
If you are blowing up and calling names and making threats and disregarding the other person's feelings and experience or putting up with shit that you shouldn't be putting up with yourself, that is modeling. Everything you do, your child is going to pick up on that. Chances are you're doing it because that was what was modeled for you. And only way to
stop that is to be very conscious and aware of what's going on and decide to make a different choice. Decide to engage differently and learn how to engage differently. The it's it's not as easy, I guess, as just deciding. The important aspect is I don't want to keep acting like this or this isn't what I want my child to to do.
So I need to make different decisions, but I don't know how to make different decisions because I never had the opportunity to witness a different option. Right. So that is where, you know, therapists come in, coaches come in, or ultimately something as simple as Google searching. You know, what is the best way to talk about sex with my child? What age should I start talking about sex with my child? Because
It starts so young from as early as playing with very sexualized Barbie dolls to TV shows. Porn is so accessible now. And the more we can have those honest, shameless conversations with our children, the more it holds us accountable as adults to live again with that integrity.
Make it a safe space for your children to come and talk to you about sex. Talking about sex does not mean you are encouraging them to have sex. It is a great way to ensure that your child has the information to make good decisions for themselves when you can have open and honest conversations around sexuality and relationships.
Fatima Bey (10:29.582)
I kind of want to I want to piggyback a little bit on what Christina just said to those of you listening and just kind of say it in a different way.
As a parent, you know, as she just said, we we grew up with whatever we grew up with. And sometimes we grew up with parents who were screwed up themselves. I mean, let's just be real. They weren't perfect, they were yelling all the time. And we we, you know, sometimes we we are expected to have healthy relationships when we've never actually seen a healthy relationship. It's like expecting someone to drive who's never been taught how to drive. And, you know, as parents,
All we can do is to do our best. And sometimes your best may be coming from a place where of of ignorance. You don't know. You're but you're still doing your best. So, you know, as Christina said, it's not like, let's beat up the parents. You're doing a terrible job. You're making a bad example. And maybe some of you are making bad examples, and maybe some of you are really good. but for if you are if you know that I just described you, okay, so now you know. So you can make a change. Even if you don't know how.
To have a healthy relationship, you do know how not not to have an unhealthy relationship in front of your kids. That's a change, a decision that you can make now if it's you. And if you are, you know, a parent and you're like, man, I'm so imperfect. I've, you know, I I date a different person every year. Okay, every year is not the same thing as every other month. If you you have different boyfriends or girlfriends throughout your life, that's not abnormal.
Okay, so don't take that as just beating you up for that because that's not the case. That's not abnormal and you're not teaching them to to devalue relationships. But if it's too frequent, I I brought that up because it's a real freaking issue. I see kids all the time to just like, well, my mom was had a different boyfriend every other week, or my dad sleeps with 10 women. You're you're teaching we're teaching our kids. Period. No matter what we're doing.
Christina Morelli (12:32.52)
Yeah, you're normalizing certain behaviors and activities that we wouldn't necessarily want our children to replicate. If you don't want your children to replicate it, don't do it.
Fatima Bey (12:44.374)
And you can't and and again, you can't do anything. I wanna add this, you can't do anything about the past. Like I said, if if we're talking about you, okay, we're talking about you right now. So what can you do about it? You can make a change from now. And that change can be have a huge positive impact on your child when they see that you used to do XYZ, but now you're doing ABC. They learn from that too.
So as parents, you're not expected to be perfect. Anybody who thinks a parent's supposed to be perfect needs to wake up because they're only living in a dream. Yeah. Okay. Part of being a parent is also learning from your parenting. 'Cause we make mistakes.
Christina Morelli (13:26.188)
Yes. And you don't know what you don't know until you are a parent, right? You can have all these ideals around being a parent. I mean, I'm I'm a great example of like, I would never do that with my child. And then once you become a parent, you're like, I understand what it means. I want to murder this kid right now. So the realities are different than what we what we imagine.
Fatima Bey (13:50.686)
Well
Christina Morelli (13:55.362)
Parenting to be. And you're right, we all do the best that we can. And what I really appreciate about what you said is like we can make a new decision at every at any moment in our life to to move forward in a better way that that shows value. Isla, I love the quote: like, today is gonna be the first day of the rest of my life. So I'm going to make better decisions every single day. And we will falter.
We will fall back into old patterns. It is inevitable. But the what the great example that you can show is like, yes, I started faltering, but I'm getting better. I'm getting more consistent. And that is something that is so invaluable to children in general, right? Being able to say to my child, like, I know I've been dating
People in the past who haven't treated me well. And I'm deciding to do that differently now. And I'm going to show you through my actions, not just my words. Yes. And and showing that you can make a shift in your life for the better, to be a better person, to live a better life, because you start to value yourself so much more. And then you get to then show your children what it means.
To value yourself as a human being and know that you deserve certain aspects of life, right? You deserve respect. You it is a human right for love. It is a human right for pleasure. It is a human right to to engage with other people in a way that feels good to us. And you don't have to engage in unhealthy ways like having people scream at you, calling you names.
Or leaving you and then coming back, leaving you and coming back, right? Or you doing the other one, the other or you being on the reverse aspect of that. So every day is is the first day of the rest of your life and you get to make that choice to live it differently.
Fatima Bey (15:52.63)
I wanna add something and speak to a very specific audience in this moment. If you are a woman that has that has a boyfriend right now that beats on you, you're dealing with domestic violence. This especially applies to you. I have been the child of watching that.
And let me tell you, it's it does traumatize your children. And I'm not saying that to give you a guilt trip. I'm saying that to give you a reality check. Please get out. And if you do get out, showing them that, like she just said, showing them that you can get out and that it is possible to make changes, that's teaching your kids a much bigger lesson than all the other bad stuff. Yeah. I just wanted to add that.
Thank you. with that, it's not really a segue, but we're gonna go into the next part. we're gonna talk about sex for this generation and and what the realities of sex are for this generation.
Christina Morelli (16:49.76)
Yeah.
Christina Morelli (16:56.098)
Yeah.
Fatima Bey (17:04.321)
And I'm gonna say this bluntly and then I will let Christina take it from there. But something that we talked that I said to her in in in our conversation before this is for parents listening, have a seat, brace yourself because this is reality. The average ten year old right now could tell you how to suck a dick. Yes, I just said that. It is absolutely true.
It is not a good thing. I I agree with you that it's a really bad thing. And it shouldn't be the case, but it is. We are so electronically connected that you can't chill shield your children unless you live like the Amish. You cannot shield your children from the realities that are out there.
Christina Morelli (17:55.042)
That's so true. And well speaking of things that are teaching children, when you have access when porn is so easily accessible, when bodies are so highly sexualized on social media, with AI nowadays taking
celebrities' faces and putting them on different bodies and you can't even tell that it's not the celebrity because the AI is so good. Creates such a dysmorphia around the ideas we have of what sexy is, what beautiful is, what sex is in general, especially when we think about porn. Porn is such a a
Look, I'm a fan of porn, I'll be honest. I don't really watch porn, but I'm not a shame I'm not a porn shamer by any means. I think porn can add value to people's lives in the sense of like giving people permission to do some naughty things that maybe they're ashamed of and an opportunity to be like, okay, maybe this is something I'm into. But I the the important aspect of teaching children is like this isn't reality.
Okay, your body's not always gonna your body's not gonna look like this, most likely. And having really rough sex that you see in porn doesn't probably feel good for most women, if we're if we're being honest. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. So we need to have really honest conversations with children at young ages around, you know, just even like as young as like one or two, like these are the body parts and using proper names for them.
And you can't shield shield your children from this. They're going to get their hands on it either way. Yeah. Yeah. We cannot shield our children from it. So the younger you can actually start talking about these conversations and topics, the more likely they're going to be able to make informed decisions for themselves based off of somebody that they trust, rely on, and feel safe with, which is you, their parent, their caregiver.
Christina Morelli (20:04.558)
And there's so many influences. You were talking about pimps and hoes when we were when we were No, go for it. I'm sorry. No, for it.
Fatima Bey (20:10.38)
You took my line.
Fatima Bey (20:15.17)
What I was saying, what I was saying to Christina, and I was gonna bring up here is that this is one of the reasons we had such a long conversation. as as parents, I'm I I'm saying gonna say a few shocking things because you need to understand the reality that our kids are living in. The tradition of talking about the birds and the bees when they're older can't be that that can't happen anymore. They if you think your kids haven't seen porn, you're wrong.
unless they have lived under a rock or you like I said, you live like the Amish, they have seen porn. I promise you they have. They're not gonna share it with you because they know it's not okay. But they have. And that's the reality that they're living in right now. I mean, I I know eight year olds that could tell you a lot of sexual stuff that I haven't even done. And that sounds crazy, but it's reality. And here's what I have to say about like I wanna, you know, go on with what Christina said about
You know, you gotta talk to you gotta talk to these kids when they're younger about sex. When for me, I say and I have said it for years, as soon as they're curious about sex or where babies come from, you need to be the one to answer that. If you brush it off, they're going to answer it because they're curious, they're gonna satisfy that curiosity one way or the other. And if it's not from you, it's gonna be from Johnny Nasty Boy down the street.
Uncle Melestalot from up the block or pimps and hoes that are all around them at school. And when I say pimps and hoes, I'm talking about mentality. I'm not necessarily talking about actual pimps and hoes. But I'm I'm just giving that that the the personalities or the mentalities a name. So they're going to get this information. They're going to learn about sex one way or the other. Wouldn't it be best if they learn it from you?
Christina Morelli (22:08.343)
mhm
Fatima Bey (22:09.686)
If they're learning it from you as a parent, then
That means that they can come talk to you. If they can talk to you, you're gonna be able to curtail the bad things that other people are going to lay in their brains or on their bodies. Right?
Christina Morelli (22:24.91)
There's no way to avoid the social influence of sex. But there are ways to provide wisdom and insight as their number one person in their life. And it starts as something as, like you said, asking, like when your child asks, where do babies come from? I believe one of the best approaches is asking them, like, what do you know about it so far? And seeing.
what they do know about it, if there's misinformation, now's an opportunity to correct any misinformation and be a reliable, credible person that they can talk to and count on to be honest with you. The sex education we have nowadays that is happening too late, in my opinion, is what celibacy, wear protection, nobody's actually talking about the realities of sex.
Consent is huge, right? Consent is way more than just sex. You should ask for consent to even touch another human being because some people aren't comfortable with touch. Some people who have been abused or molested don't feel comfortable giving hugs. And that's another way you can actually model consent with just family members, your children. If your child doesn't want to be touched, don't touch them. Respect their boundaries.
show them that what it means to be to have boundaries and have them respected. So in the future or even in the present, when those boundaries aren't respected, they get to be able to recognize like my boundary is being crossed and now I have a chance to voice
Like that's a violation of my boundary, obviously, probably in different terms, right? But you understand the idea. But it doesn't matter because no matter whether it's you, school, TV, social media, the internet, we have so many influences, those pimp and ho influences, like Fatima was saying, that will will curb their curiosity or give them wrong information.
Christina Morelli (24:35.808)
Or information we don't want them to base their decisions off of. So you have to be willing to have these conversations with them early and young and what that looks like. What it looks like to have consent, what it looks like to engage in sex. Does sex always mean penis and vaginal penetration? Right? No, it doesn't. And not nowadays, exactly. I I actually read an article which makes me really sad.
Fatima Bey (24:56.238)
Not nowadays.
Christina Morelli (25:03.17)
that a lot of young kids don't even kiss anymore. They just go straight to sex because of the porn that they've been watching. That is what is being modeled to them. So people aren't even engaging in like those hot make out sessions that I you know, you had when you were a teenager in the backseat of your car. They're just going straight to sex. Yeah.
Fatima Bey (25:23.916)
reason oral sex is huge amongst elementary school kids and I know y'all don't want to hear that but it's true it is absolutely
Christina Morelli (25:30.734)
It really is true and it's it's heartbreaking, but there are things we can do. We can't stop it, but we can we can inform them and give them the knowledge to empower them.
Fatima Bey (25:37.514)
Exactly.
Fatima Bey (25:43.714)
I think the biggest word that you use, Christina, that I think is powerful is misinformation. As as parents, if we don't respond to our kids about the things that they're curious about, and I mean just beyond sex, actually, you're almost guaranteed that they're gonna get misinformation from someone else. And that to me is scarier.
I would much rather see parents, you know, and it's an uncomfortable conversation. Let's not pretend like it's, yeah, let's just easily talk about that. And maybe in some households you can easily talk about that. But in a lot of households, because there are parents out there who already do this. and they do, you know, they're very sexually open with their kids from from the get go. But there's a you know, I think the greater portion of parents are not comfortable with this because they they probably weren't raised like that. But we have to keep in mind our kids are growing up in a
Completely, totally and utterly different world than we did. Some of those traditional ways don't work anymore. And one of them is ignoring or pretending, you know, ignoring the conversation about sex or pretending like they're not curious and it doesn't matter. If you haven't had a conversation about about sex with your child and they're thirteen, trust me, they they're already gone there. And I know y'all don't want to hear that, but it's true. And I think it's an important conversation.
you know, to have and for people to to understand.
Christina Morelli (27:12.364)
Yeah, and I think it's about who gets there first, right? Yeah. Who who gets there first, who gets that attention of your child first on those topics that we're talking about? And you want you want to be that first person to to engage in those conversations. You don't want to wait for them to necessarily bring it up. It's okay to do that.
Fatima Bey (27:15.214)
Yeah that's a good way to put it.
Christina Morelli (27:36.906)
Especially if you feel a lot of shame around conversations around sex or have a lot of biases or beliefs that maybe don't serve you or serve your own child's needs, right? But if we can get there first and have those shameless conversations, it's it's tough because for some reason sex is still so tabooed and I think it should be normalized. I think sex should be talked about as like
the weather, because it is our most biologically driving force as human beings. It's like we were meant to procreate from the most reptilian part of our brain. So sex is going to be a part of our lives, period. And if you can start if you can start engaging in those conversations now, it I would suggest doing that. Just yeah.
Fatima Bey (28:33.0)
To add, I think that because we're gonna wrap it up, but I think that these two subjects, relationship modeling and and sex, are probably the two hardest discussions to have with kids, without kids. And but they are the strongest points of discussion you can have with your kids if you really want to bond with them. And you really want them, you really want them to see you as a resource for information.
Because if they see you as a resource, if they see you as someone they can trust with information, you can make a big giant difference in their lives instead of letting all these other outside influences do it. Because they're just pimps and hoes. You want to be the answer influence and not the pimps and hoes.
Christina Morelli (29:22.242)
Yeah, and Fatima, I'd like to ask a question that I think might be helpful. So, what advice would you give parents on how to engage in the sexual conversation? It's really hard for parents to be able to see their children, their babies, as like their own individual autonomous human being that at some point is inevitably going to have sexual desires. Those conversations are super uncomfortable for a lot of parents because they want to maintain that like pure.
And innocence. So, how do you, how would you suggest, you know, being able to objectively put yourself in a position to have that conversation and remove any of that discomfort or at least lessen the discomfort around having those sexual conversations with your quote unquote babies? Because it's hard when it's your child. Like that's your baby. You're protecting them. You love their innocence, you love their purity.
And when you start opening up those conversations, it starts to remove that delusion around like my child is a or their own human being who who are who have their desires that's going to inevitably happen as they get older. So what advice do you have about approaching these conversations when it might be really hard to see your child as old enough that they might actually want to start having sex?
Fatima Bey (30:50.168)
First, I'm glad that you asked that. It's first, it is not easy. you want we want our babies to stay babies, they're precious, we love them. Remember when they used to cling to us when they were four? They ain't four no more. I think the bigger the the what can help mentally, because I'm a mind shifter, so I I help people to shift their thinking to accomplish whatever they need to accomplish. For
for me not just with childbreaking but with anything look at the bigger picture believe in the value that that conversation will have for them and if you really look at that and see it as bigger than the discomfort that you will have from having that conversation it's easier to have that conversation I'm not saying that it's easy so let me let me rephrase that because I I don't think it's easy but being willing
You have to be willing to admit that your child's gonna your child's growing up. And as simple as that sounds, it is not easy. But at the same time, if you take too long to realize that, there are repercussions that they will pay for if you don't. They're gonna make mistakes that you could have helped them to avoid. Yeah. And and if you if your child is a teenager and you haven't had those conversations,
It may be too late to go back to adolescence and take back what they've done, but start to ease into those conversations now. You can still do that. You can start now. You can always start now on any subject, just about any actually. you can always start now from where you are, because you can't start from where you aren't. Start now from where you are and try to ease into those conversations. Don't just come at them all at once and try to go from A to A to Z all at once because
That's just gonna make them run away. Ease into the conversations bit by bit, subject by subject, talk about things little by little. And even if you just say, look, I know I didn't have these conversations with you and I should have. you know, I just wanna make sure that I'm not being ignorant as a parent. What do you think about this and that? Sometimes just being that transparent can be mind-blowing to a teenager. Like, my God, I can actually I can actually talk to my mom. And and the other key thing is when they say something you don't b like, don't cut them off and start yelling at them. That is the absolute
Fatima Bey (33:14.158)
worst thing you can do. Even as an adult, if somebody starts doing that to you, how do you react? Mm-hmm. Teenagers are no different. If the worst thing you could do is tell them how stupid their ideas are or how wrong they are. And even if they're wrong, even if their ideas are stupid and wrong, listen first. At least listen first. And then like, I don't think that's a good idea, but here's why. You can still have that conversation. Cause you're right. If you're if you're right, you're right. But
Don't immediately cut them off and start yelling because what you're telling them is they can't talk to you and they need to go to the pimps and holes instead. Yes. And I'm putting it that bluntly because it really is that extreme.
Christina Morelli (33:53.11)
Yes. And there's some really good resources. I can, if you want to put them in the show notes, Fatima, of some awesome books that can help with starting the conversation or even informing you as a parent how to have these conversations at different stages, different ages. Like there's one that's called sex is a funny word for really young people. There's a sex education for teens book.
Right. And it goes through out this list goes through like the different age stages and some really awesome supporting books that talk about boundaries, consent, LGBTQ plus community, puberty, what's happening to the body and how this is going to impact their lives in the sense of how they're going to start interacting with other other people from a relational and sexual perspective. So I think maybe.
It would be helpful to provide some of these resources. because you know, in this 20, 20, 30 minute podcast, we're not going to be able to give you all the details, but there are the resources out there to support that change moving forward. And I also want to just touch base on something that you said about like when you are able to be transparent with your child, that is also a great modeling tip, right? Like that's an awesome way to model to your child. Like
I'm gonna be vulnerable and transparent. This isn't an easy conversation for me because I love you and I wanna, I want to keep that innocence. You're my baby, but the reality is X. And I want us to be able to have an honest conversation. And what you're teaching them right then and there is this is how you communicate in a healthy, vulnerable way with each other that you can feel safe and trusted to to engage in.
Fatima Bey (35:42.412)
Yes, being honest and saying, look, this conversation is hard for me, but I wanna have it because I think it's important. Even if they kind of look at you like you're crazy in the moment and they might, it's not about reactions about results. All of parenting is. It's not about reactions about results. The result that you're gonna get from that is more openness to you. I love And that's a big deal. I love that. And on that note, I do wanna we do have to wrap it up.
but Christina, if anybody is interested in your relationship coaching services, how do they find you?
Christina Morelli (36:14.22)
Yes, you can find me on my website, Christina MorelliCoaching.com. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at Christina Morelli Coaching. Feel free to drop me a DM or shoot me an email. I would love to hear from you. Any success stories, any questions? I would love to an opportunity to connect.
Fatima Bey (36:32.042)
All right. Well, thank you for Christina for coming on and having this difficult conversation, but deep conversation. I love these kind of conversations. and you all can reach out to Christina if you're looking for her coaching services.
Christina Morelli (36:48.12)
Thank you, Fatima. I appreciate the work that you do and being able to provide these conversations and opportunity to listen in to other teens and helping the parents out. It it is not an easy road. So I appreciate the work that you're doing. Chris.
Fatima Bey (37:03.555)
no problem. Thank you.
Fatima Bey (37:08.01)
And now for a mind shifting moment. For you parents that were listening today, I truly hope that you got something out of today's episode, even if it's just one small thing. I know that facing realities that we don't like can be difficult. Hearing things that we don't like can be uncomfortable. But it's necessary for you to move.
Ahead.
You can't change the past. You can't go back and change how you've done things before now.
But you can do something about moving forward. And my hopes are that you heard some things today that help you move better forward one way or the other. And if you're a teenager listening, just understand this is not easy for your parents. And even if you think they're old and out of touch and they should just leave you alone, let if they're trying, meet them halfway. Please do that. Meet them halfway.
Thank you for listening to Mind Shift Power Podcast. Please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel at the Mind Shifter. If you have any comments, topic, suggestions, or would like to be a guest on the show, please visit FatimaBay.com slash podcast. Remember, there's power in shifting your thinking. Tune in for next week.
About Our Guest

Christina Morelli
Being a child witnessing divorce made me wonder about different ways of relating.
As a young adult, I betrayed myself, gaslit myself, and talked myself into staying in relationships that caused me and my partner immense amounts of pain instead of joy.
This caused me to figure out ways to get out of the cycle of unhealthy patterns and second-guessing myself. To being out of touch with myself and without a roadmap to connections that would ignite a spark in me each day.
That process led to a deep knowing that partnership is something I truly desire. My journey to learn everything I could about relationships, sexual union, generational trauma, communication, and developing intimacy had begun.




