How old should your child be when he or she forces you to have "The Talk"? Ideally, they will wait until after they're married to talk to you about sex, but realistically it will probably come up in their early teens. Right? Well, today my five year old son asked me the dreaded question; "How do people mate?"
He has seen animals mating on nature shows, but didn't understand the "ins and outs" so to speak. Today he heard something on the news about people having sex in a parking lot and he said, "That's disgusting!" I asked him what he thought was disgusting and he said "sex." I asked him if he knew what sex was and he said "no."
Naturally I told him that I would tell him some other time. He wanted no part of that. "Tell me now, Daddy." I told him he wasn't old enough to understand it. He insisted that he was and wouldn't drop it, no matter how much I wished he would. I said that sex was the same as mating. He already knew that animals mate to make babies so thinking that he had accepted my explanation, I felt that I had dodged a bullet. "How do peope mate?" he asked. That stopped me in my tracks. I didn't think this would come up for a couple more years. I was not prepared.
"You know that men and women have different private parts, right?"
"Yes."
"Those parts are made to fit together when people mate."
"Oh."
"People have sex to mate or also because it makes them feel good."
"Oh."
"And since it is with their 'privates', you shouldn't talk about it with anybody but me and Mommy. 'Privates' means..."
"That it's private," Alex said knowingly. He offered a sheepish grin and a look of complete understanding. I felt relieved and terrified at the same time. He went back to playing with his toys and I bought a six pack of beer.
And he's not even in kindergarten yet. Wait'll they get a load of him! Wait'll...
4 comments:
Good job, Dad. Children need to hear the truth from their parents. If they don't they get all kind of misinformation from friends and schoolmates. When I was young I was told the stork brought babies. In kindergarten I got in a heated argument with a friend who told be differently. I refused to believe that my mother had lied to me. It made me feel like I couldn't talk to her about certain things. If you are honest now your child will be more apt to talk to you when he is older and you won't send him the message that sex is bad because my parents won't talk about it. Once they have an honest answer they go back to playing and don't dwell on the issue. If Alex's questions lead to your drinking more beer, you could be in serious trouble by the time he is grown and leaves home. Ha Ha
Can you say precocious? You have nothing to fear but fear itself. Keep being honest and all will be well. I especially liked the private is private part - well done.
John Briscoe said...
He is a precocious thing! Maybe this can be a good thing Travis. Heck by the time he's 20 he'll be giving you tips. The only drawback I see, & this is purely for selfish reasons, it's going to be anti-climactic when Uncle Grant & Uncle John take him to the Okinawa Spa for his 16th birthday.
Thanks to all of you for the positive feedback. I thought I handled it pretty well, but its nice to get confirmation.
As for Briscoe's comment: Okinawa Spa is a "massage" parlor (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, you know what I mean?) Have a little class, John. Take the boy to a decent strip club for pete's sake!
Post a Comment