# What Did Your Parents Teach You About Masturbation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 6, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598 "2009-11-06T17:07:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/41 "2009-11-10T01:08:16Z")
My family invented “Don’t ask, don’t tell” long before the US military did. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/42 "2009-11-11T06:36:24Z")
My parents told me everything they knew. Nothing. (I’m damn surprised they knew enough to have kids.) ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/43 "2009-11-11T06:57:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > They didn’t teach me anything at all about masturbation, because I never asked (eww!) and the subject never came up. Really, do people go to their parents and say, “Teach me about masturbation??” > > So my poll answer was “Other”: **I** preferred not to discuss it at all. > > If I **had** brought the subject up, I suspect, but don’t know, that their attitude would have been "It’s perfectly natural and normal, and nothing to be ashamed of. " Though it might have been, “It’s a bad habit and kinda gross, like picking your nose or popping your zits, and if you do it, no big deal, but we don’t want to know about it.” Same. My parents didn’t talk about it (I was given general puberty pamphlets by my pediatrician and various teachers), and I rather preferred it that way. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/44 "2009-11-11T19:38:36Z")
Female, child of a highly-educated 70’s proto-hippie with liberal ideas on childraising. I picked “Other”. My mom didn’t really directly discuss sex with me at all, but she did give me all the sort of “enlightened and empowering education for girls” books like _Our Bodies, Ourselves_. (Which I mostly ignored in favor of reading the grown-up versions (the Kinsey and Hite Reports, Joy of Sex, etc), various liberated-70’s fantasy novels that had lots of stuff I didn’t completely figure out until much later, smutty books found under mom’s bed, etc.) I’m pretty sure she knew that I was doing something, and knew that I knew that she knew, but she never actually said anything except to make the occasional death-inducingly-embarrassing joke or comment. Although she probably would have talked about it if I had asked. (Not that I would have.) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/45 "2009-11-11T21:25:10Z")
When I was away at college and my parents were packing the house to move, my mom told me she found my 4 or 5 falling-apart Playboy stash. I said oh? and she said it was disgusting. Pretty strong words, coming from her. That’s pretty much the only conversation we had about it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/46 "2009-11-11T21:37:24Z")
Lucky it wasn’t Hustler that she found then. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/47 "2009-11-12T15:53:48Z")
> [@mack](#): > > When I was away at college and my parents were packing the house to move, my mom told me she found my 4 or 5 falling-apart Playboy stash. I said oh? and she said it was disgusting. Pretty strong words, coming from her. That’s pretty much the only conversation we had about it. Because she was disgusted by porn, or because the pages were sticking together? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/48 "2009-11-12T17:23:21Z")
I clicked " other" because it was never even mentioned to me. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/49 "2009-11-12T17:40:52Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I clicked " other" because it was never even mentioned to me. Wouldn’t that fall under “They preferred not to discuss”? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/50 "2009-11-12T22:54:16Z")
My mother was halfway between “we don’t discuss that” and “if you must do it, don’t do it when other people are around.” ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/51 "2009-11-13T01:53:17Z")
It was never mentioned. I thought it was sinful but I’m not really sure WHY I thought it was sinful. I like that my daughter and I can make cracks and jokes about everything. I just asked her what I taught her about masturbation and without missing a beat she said, “That it kills kittens!” ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/52 "2009-11-13T19:48:51Z")
Every boy knows his peepee is only for weewee.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/53 "2009-11-13T21:46:57Z")
Not a thing, other than “don’t come out of your room with an erection.” ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/54 "2009-11-13T21:53:13Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > “don’t come out of your room with an erection.” we just got new carpet. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/55 "2009-11-13T22:36:12Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Because she was disgusted by porn, or because the pages were sticking together? 😃 That would have been a hell of a thing to ask her. I assumed the former. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/56 "2009-11-14T23:55:45Z")
Dad told me about sex and puberty but not at all about masturbation. When Mum caught me in the act, or thought I had been “at it” as she put it, she went nuts. I really don’t know why, she was the supposedly liberal one :rolleyes: Looking back, I think I feel worse for Dad, when caught I was dragged from bed and stood before him. I remember him asking Mum, in a way I never remembered him asking anyone else for anything else, almost pleading, to let me go back to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/57 "2009-11-15T00:54:23Z")
Neither parent ever came within miles of discussing it. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/58 "2009-11-15T02:06:37Z")
My parents were mighty progressive and I’m sure they would have been in the “it’s nothing to be ashamed of” category if I had ever brought it up. But I didn’t and neither did they. In fact we never had any sex discussion at all. But they did sign all my permission slips for sex ed at school :D. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/59 "2009-11-15T02:20:42Z")
We never, ever, talked about anything related to sex and puberty. Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598/60 "2009-11-15T02:27:57Z")
Nothing whatsoever. I suspect, like most kids, I _heard_ about masturbation from other kids before actually doing it myself. I went to a Montessori school where grades 4, 5 and 6 were all together in one class. Consequently we had younger kids mingling with older ones on a daily basis and it meant that we as young kids (nine or ten) were hearing the conversations of the 12 year olds, which is quite an age gap. The older kids talked about masturbation often, and we knew what it was at like 9 or 10 but (at least speaking for myself) didn’t have the urges to do it until later. Until that point (age 11, for me) it was just a joke, something to laugh and giggle about but not actually do. Then it became serious business. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-parents-teach-you-about-masturbation/516598.md?page=4)