# In general, is it ok to let children watch animals mate?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 12, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604 "2016-05-12T13:51:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mr\_wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_wolf)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/1 "2016-05-12T13:51:06Z")
Let’s say for children of 10 years of age and older and let’s say we’re talking about farm animals larger than a man. It is ok for them to stumble into the act and watch, or will it have any negative effects?
Surely this happened and happens all the time if the kids live in a farm. Is it any different for city folk?
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/2 "2016-05-12T13:57:46Z")
Yes it’s ok. Why wouldn’t it be? Because you might have to explain to them what the animals are doing? If that’s the case the problem isn’t with the animals or watching them getting it on.
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### Author:  [@GunnarFranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GunnarFranz)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/3 "2016-05-12T15:08:07Z")
I was never barred from watching humans or animals mate (saw my first sex scene when I was maybe five?) I don’t think it had any adverse effect on me, maybe a net positive considering I consider myself mature about the topic.
Short answer, none at all, sounds educational.
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### Author:  [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/4 "2016-05-12T15:11:18Z")
I’m curious what negative effects you think it might have. Are you worried they will attempt to join in? Worried that a child over 10 will realize there’s something called sex? I’d be much more worried about a kid who made it to 10 not knowing what sex is.
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### Author:  [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/5 "2016-05-12T15:17:13Z")
Is it okay to even question whether it is okay to let children watch animals mating?
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/6 "2016-05-12T15:20:30Z")
My parents bought me a five gallon aquarium and guppies so that I would understand the birds and the bees.
I never did make the connection.
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### Author:  [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/7 "2016-05-12T15:31:00Z")
Amazing that people will be concerned with things like this, but HAVE NO PROBLEM with their kids playing very violent video games and watching some really disturbing stuff on TV!
Let them see the animals and shut off the video games and TV (is my suggestion).
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/8 "2016-05-12T15:41:51Z")
Yes, it’s Ok, but you might want to make sure they actually know what’s going on.
One day out at the ranch, I didn’t realized there were horse going at it. My son was in kindergarten at the time. Apparently he saw. The next time we went out there, we were bringing a friend of his from school with us. My son starts telling his friend about the time he saw a daddy horse stick it’s penis in the mommy horse’s bottom to give milk to the baby.
I was like: :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
So then we had a bit of talk about what really had happened. Then I had to tell the friend’s mother in case her daughter repeated some or part of it later on. Thankfully the mom thought it was hilarious.
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### Author:  [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/9 "2016-05-12T16:05:19Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#):
>
> …One day out at the ranch, I didn’t realized there were horse going at it. My son was in kindergarten at the time. Apparently he saw. The next time we went out there, we were bringing a friend of his from school with us. My son starts telling his friend about the time he saw a daddy horse stick it’s penis in the mommy horse’s bottom to give milk to the baby…
I thought the same way when I was a kid. I couldn’t understand why my dad paid to fill his car with water at the gas station when he could use the garden hose at home for free!
So I helped him and filled his car with water at home… I was in big trouble when we went for a drive and the car died. He used locking gas caps after that.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/10 "2016-05-12T16:35:02Z")
I had a dyslexic moment and initially reversed “children” and “animals” when I read the thread title. :eek:
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/11 "2016-05-12T16:40:08Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> My parents bought me a five gallon aquarium and guppies so that I would understand the birds and the bees.
>
> I never did make the connection.
Me, too. The birds ate the guppies, so I thought I had it all figured out!
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/12 "2016-05-12T16:51:59Z")
I was close to a friend of mine when my cat was in heat. We waited too long to have her fixed, but planned to do so when the emergency subsided (the vet said that was OK). So she was getting fucked frequently.
We made sure to invite my friend’s 5yo son to watch. Afterwards, we asked if he had any questions.
He sure did, and dropped the bombshell. “Can I go outside and play?”
The moral of the story is…if you don’t make a big deal of natural functions, they don’t become a big deal.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/13 "2016-05-12T17:01:16Z")
When I was about 12, the neighbors’ dogs decide to, literally, do it in the road while were all out playing. In those days, we routinely played football in the road. It was so funny to see the two neighbors carrying the dogs off, still stuck together to shield our virgin eyes from such a sight!
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### Author:  [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/14 "2016-05-12T17:09:36Z")
When I worked at a residential facility for kids, we routinely had visits from local church groups. I was in charge of the equine program, and had strict rules about entering the barn area without me, rules that our volunteer coordinator routinely ignored.
One day I got a voice mail on my office phone that was about 12 minutes long, filled with screaming by the VC and a local pastor, about how traumatized they were because they were at the barn and saw two horses going at it. They demanded that we keep the male and female horses in separate pastures, and WON’T I THINK OF THE CHILDREN. It was the funniest voice mail I’ve ever gotten, particularly since the kids were early teens and were probably watching worse things on the Internet.
So if you’re a sheltered group of church kids and your pastor doesn’t want to answer uncomfortable question, it’s a bad idea. 😃
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/15 "2016-05-12T17:14:57Z")
My kids witnessed animals in flagrante delicto and I explained everything using the scientific terms. When my daughter corrected her classmate about the girl’s mom’s pregnancy, I had an angry call to deal with. Still, I’m glad I took the approach I did.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/16 "2016-05-12T17:15:28Z")
At 10yo, I was watching humans mate in R rated movies. Parents never saw fit to censor what I watched. I turned out okay.
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/17 "2016-05-12T17:42:53Z")
I think the entire history of our species being part of nature and witnessing its every day occurrences would tend to say there’s nothing wrong with it.
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### Author:  [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/18 "2016-05-12T17:44:15Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#):
>
> Yes, it’s Ok, but you might want to make sure they actually know what’s going on.
>
> One day out at the ranch, I didn’t realized there were horse going at it. My son was in kindergarten at the time. Apparently he saw. The next time we went out there, we were bringing a friend of his from school with us. My son starts telling his friend about the time he saw a daddy horse stick it’s penis in the mommy horse’s bottom to give milk to the baby.
I agree with this. The human act can also look pretty violent to a young child who doesn’t realize what’s going on. One person on top of another, and the facial expressions during intense passion are very close to the expressions of anger and distress.
With cats it’s even worse because the female actually does get pissed off (because it hurts her).
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/19 "2016-05-12T17:44:07Z")
> [@mr\_wolf](#):
>
> Let’s say for children of 10 years of age and older and let’s say we’re talking about farm animals larger than a man. It is ok for them to stumble into the act and watch, or will it have any negative effects?
>
> Surely this happened and happens all the time if the kids live in a farm. Is it any different for city folk?
FWIW, wild animals engaging in mating/reproductive activities are commonly seen in nature documentaries that air on PBS on a regular basis. As a suburban kid, I’m sure I watched everything from insects to whales playing Hide The Sausage.
Not sure what kinds of negative effects you imagine might arise.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-general-is-it-ok-to-let-children-watch-animals-mate/754604/20 "2016-05-12T17:45:25Z")
Like any other question about rearing children, it depends on whether the custodial adults have sufficient maturity and common sense to deal with the the curiosity of children. If you’re an adult who would say “Wow, look at the tool on that dude!”, then no, in your care, it is probably not a good Idea to take the kids out to watch mating in the barnyard.
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