You're right. There are many other problems that can arise from not acknowledging our children (especially daughters) as sexual beings. Not only the inability to recognize healthy and unhealthy touching, but the inability to deal with it (i.e. stop unhealthy touches), and in many women in my age group(18-35) the inability to validate thier own sexuality without sleeping with some jerk. Mom and Dad didn't acknowlege thier sexuality, so someone needs to.sure. but it's important to remember that it's a two-way street. children are sexual beings - most people don't want to view them as such, for obvious reason, and we end up not teaching them the things they should know about their own sexuality, like how to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy touching and that adults and other children alike need permission to touch them. not making that distinction early on causes quite a bit of blurriness about sex, which often directly or indirectly leads to sexual abuse.
It is unfortunate that our society refuses to acknowlege the sexual being in our children. There are many important lessons we could impart to our children by merely doing so.
