Gooblah
Heh...
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2007
- Messages
- 4,282
A somewhat broad topic, but one I find myself increasingly interested in, due in part to my own interactions with my parents and sister (and friends). Note that I am speaking from a largely male perspective, given my lack of female friends that I could hold an honest and open discussion of this topic with (well, no. Really, this is a topic I'm unsure of how to broach, and given the next time I'm meeting with my friends is for a Halloween thing....?), and my furiously prude sister and mother (sister to a lesser extent).
Now, my main question:
Given the fact that when a child is first introduced to sex and sexual reproduction (in my experience, fifth grade), their curiosity is somewhat peaked, and that modern American culture makes sex at once a taboo and a cultural icon, what is the role of parents in introducing their children to this brave new world they are confronted with? Beyond that, how should teenagers deal with their new sexuality?
For example: pornography. The internet (as my Computer Science teacher who is remarkably open and mature about these sorts of topics put it) represents the step above Playboy and magazines; no longer do you need an inherited shoebox of dirty magazines and videos; no longer do you wait until night, turn on a flashlight, and open the lid; now you can just turn to your laptop and stream webcam chats, porn videos, sex games, erotic images and clothing, etc. If one is curious, s/he can just surf the web, maybe google a term or two, and be confronted with everything one could ever imagine. How are teenagers to deal with this if they are curious about sex? It's pretty creepy to discuss sex with ones parents (one of my most....awkard memories is my father giving me a sex talk on the way home from school; apparently he left work early for that specific purpose. While I appreciate the intent today, it still gives me a cold shiver to contemplate) - for Christ's sake, they engaged in such activities to produce you! They're old and prude! Discussion with friends is limited to knowledge gleaned from older siblings, MTV, and other such sources - a barely adequate picture. It changes once you go through formal sexual education, but should parents actively broach the topic? Introduce children to the wild world? How should they react if they discover their child has been looking at pornography?
A few closing thoughts: This was inspired by a piece on NPR about a dude who took his 11-year-old to Hooters after his son's football game as a way of introducing him to sexuality (he and his son live with four women - two grandmothers, the wife/mother, and the daughter/sister), and my mother asking me why I found the piece 'so interesting' - she proceeded to ask me if I approved of the man's decision (I did), and how parents should react if their children look at porn (from experience...she does not react well).
I've revealed a large bit of myself in this post, I guess, but the sad truth of reality is that this is still a largely touchy topic with my parents and I, and one that I can't really broach except under the anonymity conferred by the interwebs. Please, no spamming/trolling, I want honest responses.
Now, my main question:
Given the fact that when a child is first introduced to sex and sexual reproduction (in my experience, fifth grade), their curiosity is somewhat peaked, and that modern American culture makes sex at once a taboo and a cultural icon, what is the role of parents in introducing their children to this brave new world they are confronted with? Beyond that, how should teenagers deal with their new sexuality?
For example: pornography. The internet (as my Computer Science teacher who is remarkably open and mature about these sorts of topics put it) represents the step above Playboy and magazines; no longer do you need an inherited shoebox of dirty magazines and videos; no longer do you wait until night, turn on a flashlight, and open the lid; now you can just turn to your laptop and stream webcam chats, porn videos, sex games, erotic images and clothing, etc. If one is curious, s/he can just surf the web, maybe google a term or two, and be confronted with everything one could ever imagine. How are teenagers to deal with this if they are curious about sex? It's pretty creepy to discuss sex with ones parents (one of my most....awkard memories is my father giving me a sex talk on the way home from school; apparently he left work early for that specific purpose. While I appreciate the intent today, it still gives me a cold shiver to contemplate) - for Christ's sake, they engaged in such activities to produce you! They're old and prude! Discussion with friends is limited to knowledge gleaned from older siblings, MTV, and other such sources - a barely adequate picture. It changes once you go through formal sexual education, but should parents actively broach the topic? Introduce children to the wild world? How should they react if they discover their child has been looking at pornography?
A few closing thoughts: This was inspired by a piece on NPR about a dude who took his 11-year-old to Hooters after his son's football game as a way of introducing him to sexuality (he and his son live with four women - two grandmothers, the wife/mother, and the daughter/sister), and my mother asking me why I found the piece 'so interesting' - she proceeded to ask me if I approved of the man's decision (I did), and how parents should react if their children look at porn (from experience...she does not react well).
I've revealed a large bit of myself in this post, I guess, but the sad truth of reality is that this is still a largely touchy topic with my parents and I, and one that I can't really broach except under the anonymity conferred by the interwebs. Please, no spamming/trolling, I want honest responses.
