Never got the talk, but I’ve given the talk in many forms to my now 14 year old son. He’s not uncomfortable about them and in fact he brings me the Playboy sometimes to show me the funny cartoons. He’ll sit in the same room with me looking through it, so I know he’s not shy about sexuality around me. I hope that continues as he gets older and more ready to delve into the world of actual sex.
I got The Book read to me, followed by The Talk, when I was about 6. It was excruciating. My mom told me not to talk to my friends about it, so of course I educated the neighborhood immediately.
When I was 10 I got the “By the way, you might start your period while away at camp” talk. My mom showed me the medieval Sanitary Napkin Belt and told me how much fun it was to be a woman. I was like “Oh HELL no! I’m gonna do THAT until I’m 50?” Blech.
I never got a talk about drugs until they busted me and my friend getting high at a sleepover and took my weed.
We got the talk when I was about 6. I think it was preempted by my older brother asking about it after hearing something at school or something (he would have been about 9). She sat us down with the Encyclopaedia and explained in detail how the whole thing worked, including the differing male and female structures etc. I was obviously too young to feel that this was salacious, and getting a factual background meant I never was that curious about sex.
I do recall that my brother headed off to school armed with this knowledge which he proceeded to share with classmembers, prompting a call home from the school to ask my mother to keep info to a minimum. I think she disregarded this, but made sure he knew there were things it was better not to talk about at school and this was one of them.
Wow, the school actually had the gall to request that a mother promote ignorance with her children?
Yup. 
“Talk to your kids about drugs.” Hey kids - don’t do drugs, they’re bad for you.
“Talk to your kids about smoking.” Hey kids - don’t start smoking. It’s a horrible habit and tough to break.
“Talk to your kids about drinking and driving.” Hey kids - go get me a beer. Also, you’re too young to drink. And don’t ever drive drunk.
“Talk to your kids about baseball” (I think this was the ad campaign for the Rangers a while back) Hey kids - how 'bout them Rangers?
Yes, when I was 17, I got the talk from my father.
“Son, you’re almost 18 now, so we need to have a talk. How do you plan to vote?”
I don’t remember getting The Talk, but I do remember asking mum “What if you have sex but don’t want to have a baby?” when I was about five. She told me about little ‘raincoats’ you can put on the man’s penis so sperm doesn’t reach the egg, and I was satisfied with that. So I assume she told me how babies are made some time before that. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know the basics. A friend in primary school once asked me “Do you know about … looks around nervously, whispers sex?”. I was like “Um, yeah. What about it?” I got The Book when I was twelve, but there was nothing in there I didn’t already know.
As for the Drugs Talk, health class took care of that.
Mechanics and Biology were drip-fed via “My Body” type books from a very early age (to the point where I have no recollection of ever not having known where babies come from), but I did get a Talk when I was a teen, about Masturbation and Prostitution, from my father.
Grim
Heh - every time there was a Drugs Episode on, say, In the Heat of the Night or something, my dad would say “Never do that!” - that’s how we talk about drugs in this house.
I mean, I wasn’t a problem kid. Not the type to do drugs. And I didn’t even date in high school - my contraception method was “be unpopular”.
As far as sex, the only talk parents gave me came when I was 13 and we happened to be watching a news segment about sex ed. My dad asked if I learned about “all that stuff” in school. I said yes, and that was pretty much it. My parents have always been pretty conservative when it comes to that kind of stuff, so I can’t imagine they would have been very comfortable giving me “the talk.”
But they did warn us quite often about the perils of drugs.
My parents are both nurses, as are several extended family members. There’s not a lot about the human body that wasn’t talked about freely and matter-of-factly. Not just sex, either - diarrhea, AIDS, heart surgery, vomit…everything.
I sometimes forget that not everyone grew up with my parents. Sometimes the girlfriend will have “personal health” issues and she’ll ask me about it. I’ll say “I don’t know, let’s call my mom.” She’ll freak out with embarrassment, so I’ll go “Ok then…let’s call dad.”
She finds this incredibly bizzare.
I don’t recall that I got much information from my family, but they all knew I read a lot, including things they were embarrassed to catch me reading.
Let’s see, I do remember one time when Mom found out I’d borrowed some of her tampons. She freaked out because I “wasn’t a virgin anymore”.
Another time, my grandmother asked me and my brother if we knew how to use a condom. (Too little, too late, but she tried). My brother rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, Grandma, you put it on your finger!” We cracked up and she left the room, irritated.
My mom had me when she was 16 and was determined I would not follow in her footsteps. I knew what sex was and how to prevent pregnancy by the time I was in kindergarten.
Not really, no.
When I was about 10 or 11, my mom very embarrasedly asked if I knew what a period was (I did). That’s about it.
When I was dating a guy in high school, she also made vague references to “not going too far”, but I never got a TALK.
In my case, fortunately, it wasn’t necessary - I read whatever I could get my hands on, and learned most of what I knew about sex at that age (10) from my mom’s magazines (stuff like Redbook, all those women’s home magazines). Also, I actually got decent sex ed in school (Catholic school, even!), so I was pretty aware of what could and could not get me pregnant.
ETA: and no drug or alcohol talk at all, really. My parents would let me have a drink on special occassions (and sometimes just when they had one) from when I was a teenager, so alcohol was never a big deal in our family. I didn’t get drunk when I was in high school and still living with them. They’ve asked me since I finished college if I’ve ever done drugs, and my answers (yes, btw) didn’t bother them - of course I didn’t go into details, but I’ve always wondered why their attitudes towards drugs & alcohol are so different from their attitudes towards sex.
No, never got a talk. I was a pretty bland kid, I never even had a curfew because it wasn’t necessary. 
Not really. I didn’t get a drug talk at all, but I learned about that from school. I did ask my grandma about sex, but she was from the old school, where that wasn’t talked about. She gave me a copy of the book “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (but were afraid to ask)” and told me to read it. Considering our situation, I think that was the best possible outcome.
Oh, and I’ve already had the talk with my daughter, who is 10. She watches a lot of animal shows, so she already knew the basic mechanisms. She handled it very well. I’ve always been honest with her and talked to her about anything she wanted to know.
No talk here. My dad’s not super comfortable with emotions and stuff like that. I learned it all from porn and other online sources. I don’t feel like I missed out. No children (that I know of).
No.
My parents handed me a book that covered the topic. I took a look and realized I knew all this already.
No. I got a pamphlet. It was about my period, and reassured me that no one would ever know I had it as long as I didn’t “giggle and act silly” and “wear tight pants”. I was very confused about that last bit; it took me years to figure out that Mom gave us a really OLD pamplet, from the days when maxipads were like mattresses. My sister, OTOH, tried to convince our dad to buy us a horse, because the pamplet said horseback riding was good exercise during menstruation (but we should avoid swimming :rolleyes:).
As far as sex and birth control, our parents pretty much left it up to the school, our set of encyclopedias, and Dad’s Playboys that he always left in the downstairs bathroom.
When I was 15, The Old Man said, “Son, I know you’re getting to the age where you’re curious about girls. If you have any questions, just ask.”
He had no idea I’d already been sexually active for 2 years. Good thing I knew enough to do research on my own.
There was a refresher when we we were loading up the car at 17 to drive me up to my first year of college.
“Got all your clothes?”
“Yep.”
“Got your coffee maker?”
“Yep.”
“Got your notebooks and pens and stuff?”
“Yep.”
“Got your rubbers?”
“Yep.”
“Well, uh, good. If you’re going to be doing any of that sort of stuff, make sure you use them.”
Thanks, Pop.