About the stuff us guys have to find out for ourselves. Sex, money, drinking…, you name it. Generally, I think that’s true.
What do you think?
GOD, no!
But that just might be me.
[sub]I’m a girl[/sub]
I don’t talk to my parents about sex or drinking. I’m a girl.
I’m a girl, and I talk about these things with my dad a lot more than with my mom. (Although not sex)
I noticed my son came to me with all his questions regarding sex and other various aspects of growing up, my daughter didn’t. I made the offer to both of them in the same way.
I did mention to my son however that it was better to come to me for advice on women as his father had absolutely no idea.
As an adult though my daughter now confides everything and treats me more like a girlfriend than a mother.
Generally it’s true that teens like/trust/respect their mothers more than their fathers, and the opposite is so with girls. It’s that whole individual-development “you’re trying to make me into you” thing. Cliche, I know, but true.
I confided in my mom a LOT more than in my dad when I was growing up. I always got along better with her. I had severe issues with my dad when I was a teenager; although we reconciled, we were never what you would call ‘close.’ But I have no problems talking with my mom about a lot of things I would never have told my dad. (I also came out to her eight months before I came out to Dad.)
Girls talk to each other about all the important stuff a lot more than boys talk to one another, maybe. As teenagers, my girlfriends and I shared and analyzed every tiny bit of information about life and death and sex and menstruation and drugs and gossip and fashion…well, wait, we still do and I’m thirty-three.
I do talk to my mother more as a peer now that I’m a grownup and share intimate thoughts, as opposed to talking mostly politics and current events with my Dad.
I was certainly much closer to my mom than to m,y dad as a teenager. I still am. My dad is great for dealing with finances, car repairs, job advice, etc, since that’s what he takes care of in the family and in his job. My mom is DEFINITELY the one to go to for emotional things. While I don’t straight out talk about sex and stuff like that with my mom, I am certainly more comfortable making jokes and comments about it. My dad and I don’t really get along on the “what’s important in life” level, although that is improving as I get older and more independent.
Im sure daughter do talk to their mom more than sons talk to their dads, but I think that’s because women tend to talk more than men. I can sit in silence for hours, days even. Hell, I should be so lucky. Now take someone like my Grandma, there’s no way in hell should could go longer than a few hours without talking to someone. She’d go crazy or something. When I was living with her, she once made a comment on how I gave her a inferiority complex by not talking to her. I stayed in my room all day because I couldn’t stand to hear her voice anymore. There were days when it was all I could do to keep myself from braking her brittle old lady hip and sending her to the hospital so I could have a moment of silence. If I left my room at 5am to make myself a sandwich as quietly as possible, she’s wake up, act like she just got up to get something to drink and it had nothing to do with me, and then she’d try to start a conversation with me. As God as my witness, if I ever marry someone that talks as much as that, I’m going to pop my ear drums.
Then again, maybe I’ve just grown up around very very very talkative women.
I think that, in general, girls and women talk more than guys anyway. However, you are always going to find folks who don’t fit the standard mold of “silent guy” or “talkative girl”.
I didn’t talk much at all to either of my parents as a teenager - about the things in the OP.
I have managed somehow to keep the communication link open with both my daughter and son (18 and 15), and also with my step kids (14 and 17). They are all very comfortable with asking me about anything under the sun. To be sure, some of their confidences have been shocking, but I’d rather have it that way then to be “closed” to them.
Female here. I’ve never confided much in either of my parents. However, as a teenager, I was a lot closer to my dad than my mom. My mom has a fierce temper and is much more judgmental than my father. She’s mellowed a lot in recent years, and I’ve grown closer to her, but if I ever need a shoulder to cry on, I go to my husband or my friends, not my parents.
I do and have always talked a lot more to Mum about pretty much anything: drugs, sex, bowel movements (don’t ask!) etc. I think it may be because she left when I was six so my relationship with her has always been a bit more ‘matey’. My Dad was the one who brought me up and so I kind of view him as the disciplinarian and only really go to him for job advice and things like that. I can chat to my Mum for hours about pretty much anything (we also have a lot more in common than me and my Dad) but when it comes to talking to pops it is a lot harder. I feel terrible because the guy has done everything for me and my Mum just fucked off and left us but I can’t help but get on better with her.
Growing up, I always talked to my mom about everything, no matter what it was. She was even the one who originally taught me how to shave even though she eventually told my uncle to do it since she was somewhat embarassed she was having to tell a boy how to do something so obviously masculine.
Now that I’m an adult, I feel just as comfortable with either one of them although there are certain topics, like religion, that I feel more at ease talking about with on than the other.
To this day, my mom tends to talk at me rather than to me. To her, the world is pretty much cut-and-dried black and white, and she knows how it should be. I don’t think she ever asked me what I thought about anything of substance. She told me what I should think about sex, drugs, religion, life in general. She never did understand why I joined the Navy. She still has no idea what I do for a living, because she’ll ask and before I can answer, she’s off on a tangent about people I don’t know in situations I don’t particularly care about.
Yeah, there’s a little baggage there.
Now, my husband is amazingly close to his dad. Whenever he’s got something on his mind, even after we talk about it, he’ll call his dad and get his slant on the situation. Same with his mom. His parents are good at listening, and they offer opinions, but I’ve never heard them tell any of their sons what they should do. Lucky them.
I am close to both my parents, and talk to them all the time, but I don’t, and never have, confided in them. That’s what friends are for.
My daughter has no such scruples, and tells me everything (and is incensed if she suspects I’m not doing the same to her). Sometimes it’s far TMI, but I’m glad she feels she can.
Well, the floodgates just opened when I said to my mom “Mom, I’m having that not-so-fresh feeling.” 
Just kidding, never really talked about anything of substance until I became an adult and wasn’t scared of her anymore. She was very quiet…quiet people are intimidating, aren’t they? Especially quiet women…what devious things could they have up their sleeves? 