Whom do parents see as the social agent(s) to be entrusted with the sex education of children? This paper investigates the question of the so-called take-over of a family function by another social institution. Data obtained from a random sample of mothers who had experienced a livebirth or stillbirth in the last five years suggest that most parents feel they should teach children about reproductive physiology, but that they also want the schools to help. Preference does not appear to be contingent on the extent of the mother's knowledge of reproductive physiology, on her fertility experience, or on the source of her sex information.