Flying home on Virgin America from San Francisco this week I took in an episode of MTV's "Sex with Mom and Dad" on the in-flight entertainment system.  While I was prepared to be entertained, I was not expecting to be as engaged as I was by Dr. Drew Pinsky's moderation of the parent-kid talk.

TV critic Brittany Doctor says in her review that, "Sex" is an enlightening show. It's a shock to see how little many teens around the country know about the dangers of unprotected sex, as demonstrated in episode five when Tiara revealed that she didn't know that she could get pregnant or infected even if her boyfriend "pulled out."  Exactly...except I wouldn't limit the commentary to teens--as you'll see for yourself.

The bottom line in all of the wide-ranging episodes is that parent-child communication is so very important.  And the age of the participants doesn't matter.  Talking about and planning for your most important moments makes sense.  "Sex with Mom and Dad" takes a step in the direction of making the conversation easier.

If you thought dealing with Jeff Conaway's addiction (not to mention his girlfriend) on "Celebrity Rehab" was a daunting task, wait until you see this. Dr. Drew is going to help teens and parents talk about sex.

"Sex...with Mom and Dad" premieres Monday on MTV. And not a moment too soon.

We hear it constantly from teens and young adults—parents have more influence over their kids' sex lives than anything else. Certainly more influence than parents themselves think they have, and also more influence than media, friends, school, religion or anything else for that matter. Which is good—if you have parents who know how to talk about sex, love, values, and relationships or who at least care enough to make sure the messages their kids get from them about these issues are rooted in self-respect and responsibility. But that's not always as easy as it sounds. After all, it can be hard to talk about this stuff—embarrassing, awkward, confusing. Parents may feel that they need to be experts (not true) or that their own past calls their authority into question (also not true). Kids may feel weird about these conversations (almost always true) and may resist a parent's efforts to start a discussion (you can bank on this one) or their own desire to have their questions answered. All of which can lead to misinformation, bad choices, family turmoil, and more.

So what can you do? Short of enlisting the expert advice of Dr. Drew Pinsky—not just a TV doc but an actual board certified, medical school-teaching, honest-to goodness physician, who incidentally has teenage children of his own—you can actually do quite a bit. We have some handy, dandy tips for parents to get you started. The most important thing is to remember that it's not The Talk - but rather a conversation that lasts a lifetime. Age-appropriate information about feelings and body parts, honest discussions about what's acceptable in your family (which is often very different than what's acceptable in Hollywood or even among peers), and wide-ranging conversations about dreams for the future (and what would stand in the way of those dreams, like say too-early parenthood for example) are important.

Tune in next Monday at 7p ET/PT. Let us know what you think.