I hear a lot about parents giving their kids talks about the birds and the bees and drugs. I see jokes made about it on television, I read references to it in books and so on.
When it comes to sex, my mom (dad lives across the country) never gave me the talk. It’s not like it mattered. By the time I was ten (if not earlier- all my memories of earlier than this are super fuzzy) I knew what sex was and I knew what it entailed. By the time I was twelve I was sneaking glimpses at porn. And so on.
As for drugs, never got the talk about them, either. I smoke weed occasionally but I refuse to do hard drugs and I don’t smoke. I rarely drink.
Did you guys get the talk? Do you really think it was helpful? Do you have kids? If so, did you give them the talk? If you’re planning on having kids, are you planning on giving them the talk?
The talk was never a part of my life and so I’m not sure it’s particularly necessary. Just curious as to your experiences. Supposedly it’s something that all parents are supposed to do with their kids but it never happened for me or any of my friends as far as I know.
My parents didnt give me the talk. Maybe they should have…I was pregnant in high school. We did get the talk in health class though, idk if it would be different coming from parents. Anyway, I have had the drug talk with my pre-teen son, but not the sex talk. I’m hoping his dad will tackle that one.
I never got The Talk, but there were lots of conversations that touched on all the stuff I should and shouldn’t do. The (Sex) Talk would have been silly, considering that, when you grow up on a farm, you figure out the mechanics pretty early. My mother was also smart enough to realize that her kids were probably better-informed about drugs than she was. If we had a (capital letters) Talk, it was the Responsibility Talk - i.e. “Be prepared for the consequences of your actions and decisions.”
As for my own kids, we have ongoing discussions - I answer their questions as thoroughly and as honestly as I’m able, but there’s no capital letters Talk. It’s a process, not an event.
My mom read me a book called “How to talk to your 6-year-old about sex” when I was a little younger than 6. From that point, there were mini-conversations throughout my childhood and adolescence.
By the time we got “sex ed” in junior high, it was old news to me, and I got impatient with my fellow students as they giggled and freaked out.
Not really. My parents gave me a book when they thought I was self-pleasuring too much.
Also, I got in trouble in Kindergarden when a teacher read some myth about a god making a young girl pregnant, and I told one of my friends it really cool if she could get pregnant. I honestly had no idea it had anything to do with sex.
Finally, I thought the vagina was on the front like the penis until I saw one in person.
I never had the talk, if just because school had sex ed classes. My pediatrician also gave me some pamphlets after a physical just before seventh grade.
My older (9 years older than me) brother gave me the talk. He explained that if I slept with a virgin she would love me for the rest of her life no matter what I did. He also advised me try to sleep with women in their 40’s since they couldn’t get pregnant. My older brother meant well, but he needed the talk way more than I did.
Around the fifth grade I didn’t get **The Talk **so much as I got The Book followed by The Quick Chat. It was extremely basic, didn’t really cover things like why people have sex or how to avoid getting pregnant, STDs, etc. I think they were the type of parents that wanted to cover the extreme basics and hoped that school, friends, and media would eventually fill in the rest, or something.
I got the talk when I was four and was either too young to understand or just had the attention span of a gnat. Later, when I was eight, I got The Book, which was called something along the lines of “How a Baby Is Made” or “How The &%$# Did I Get Here?”
I was grossed out and decided if I’m going to have to do that then I just wouldn’t have kids.
The only talk I got was DON’T DO IT! Sex is for procreation, not recreation, between MARRIED PEOPLE.
I recreate-d a LOT starting at age 15. Every single day when possible.
Only got caught once. Man, what a lecture that was.
My wife made me spill the beans to our son when he was 9 years old!
I fought it, but she was adamant that today’s 9 year olds are like yesteryear’s 18yo, and he had to have solid, proper information, not rumors and such.
He listened patiently while I explained things in a rather general and clinical manner.
At the end, he asked, “how does the sperm get in there to the egg?” :smack:
I told him the truth, and he thought for a moment, and said “that’s just nasty. I’m not doing that.”
He’s 16 now, but I don’t think opportunity has knocked just yet.
Yes. I was bored out of my mind. My Dad was sitting there telling me all these things that I knew had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH MY LIFE. Being gay and having parents that, at the time, were deeply in denial about it made a lot of things interesting.
My parents divorced when I was very young, and I was only with my dad a couple of weekends a month from age 7 or so forward. He was a wonderful guy, and I remember him at some point saying “Sometime soon we’ll have to talk about this.” But that time never came.
My uncle (my mom’s sister’s husband), bless him, tried to step into the breech. But he obviously didn’t relish the task, as his sole statement to me was “You know that your penis is used for something else besides peeing, right?”
I assured him that I did, but the truly great thing about this exchange was the setting…my uncle made this statement to me as he was spraying off the driveway with a garden hose!
My principal sex education came from a book I found in a bottom drawer at my aunt and uncle’s house one night when I was baby sitting my younger cousin. It was an adult-level general health book, but had a couple of specific chapters that spelled things out for me pretty well.
My mother got some pamphlet from the Presbyterian Church and literally threw it through my bedroom doorway at me saying just “read this” (I guess I would have been about 14). She also did this for my brothers (11, 7) at the same time, I never found out whether they got the same flyer as I did or some even less explicit version. You might kinda get the idea she was just a tad uncomfortable about this aspect of parenting.
The most hilarious bit was where is said what a miracle of god it was that the male parts fitted exactly inside the female parts. Even then I realised that had that not been so, the human race may not have been around long enough to produce me.