The Facts... without the Lecture
B4uDecide.ie is closing down at the end of May 2024.
Alternative sources of relationships and sexuality information and resources:
- For 16-25 year olds: SpunOut.ie is an information provision website, including relationships and sexuality issues.
- For 17+ year olds: Sexualwellbeing.ie is the HSE website that provides information and resources on a wide range of information such as consent, contraception, sexual transmitted infections, vaccinations and unplanned pregnancy
- For parents: The HSE’s ‘Making the ‘Big Talk’ many small talks’ series of booklets to help parents and children talk about relationships and sexuality is available online, and to order free of charge from healthpromotion.ie. HSE funded RSE workshops are available at npc.ie and ifpa.ie
- For teachers: Junior Cycle SPHE Resources are available to support the new 2023 SPHE specification , including the Relationship and Sexuality strand.
- For youthworkers: HSE funded training on relationship and sexuality issues is available at REAL U | Foroige and Tailored Training Courses – National Youth Council of Ireland
Friendship & relationships
It’s healthy to spend time developing good friendships with boys and girls as a teenager. Teenagers say that they have good friendships with people they:
- trust
- can have a laugh with
- have lots in common with
- are easy to talk to.
Good friends tend to:
- accept one another for who they are
- stick up for one another
- watch out for one another.
People tend to start having girlfriends and boyfriends in later teenage years. The qualities we look for in a good friend are the same qualities that we tend to look for in a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend – someone we trust, can have a laugh with, have lots in common with and are easy to talk to. It’s healthy for romantic relationships to begin with friendship.
If you feel attracted to someone in your class or in your group of friends, read our Top Tips for advice. Try not to be too disappointed with Rejection – it happens to everyone at some stage! And sometimes, even if you do like someone who doesn’t like you back, you can still be good friends.