"Mommy, What Are They Doing?" - Nature and Our Aversion to Sex... - Continued.

From the previous post:
My question is - why are parents so aprehensive about discussing sex with their children? Do they think that avoiding it will make it less likely to take place?

I find that a lot of parents I know are afraid to talk to their children about sex - no matter what the age. There's always been something taboo about the topic, I guess because it's such an intimate thing when you truly know what it's all about. My mother and I never really discussed the details of sex - but I guess school covered the major stuff - we just talked about the peripherals - for lack of a better term. The information was there, though - and I guess that's why I've been able to be so responsible in my lifetime. I think it's up to the parents to give their child as much facts as they can, with the seasoning of experience - and allow them to draw their own conclusions and make their own mistakes. I'm almost positive that arming children and young-adults with the weapon of knowledge will prevent a great deal of issues and mishaps later in life.



It's probably for this reason that I'm not afraid to talk to my sister about sex. I was always given the truth as a child, and I feel she deserves the same respect. She is a very intelligent little girl - and anything less than the truth would be undermining her intellect. The problem nowadays is that parents tend to baby their children well into their teens. They fail to realize or admit that children are having sex at earlier ages nowadays. I lost my virginity at 12 - a fact that I'm not proud of - but I knew the risks that I was taking beforehand. I paid attention in Sex Education, I listened to my Mom when she told me what could happen to me - I watched Maury. We watched it together, and discussed how the young ladies ended up not knowing their child's father. All those Lifetime movies about teen pregnancy - the one about a whole high school catching Syphilis from one girl. I learned these things not by experiencing them - but by talking about them with someone who obviously knows stuff - because she has children.



My Grandmother has always been squeamish about sex. I guess because of the era that she was born in. Women were conservative, covered up, and saved until marriage. I don't even think women kissed other men before they got married. Which sounds crazy to us - but casual dating must sound preposterous to my Grandma! She even turns her head when people kiss on TV. Don't even get me started on if they start moaning or simulating sex. I always joke about her using the "Wedding Cloth" to create all her children. I often wonder if she's ever even seen a penis. That being said - I could never discuss sex with my Grandma. I remember back when I was like seven or eight - and I was sitting down shirtless at my Grandma's house in Jamaica. I was fascinated with my aureoles at the time, and I was looking at my nipples in the mirror. My Grandma got so mad at me! It was my uncle, who's younger than my Mom - who sat me down and told me it was okay to be curious with my body - just not okay to sit around anywhere and explore it. I love him! It goes to show, though - how generations change. I'm going to be open to educating my children about sex, and I already see how reckless and wanton a lot of young parents are being with their children these days. I recount watching a five-year old singin, "I like a long hair thick redbone, open up her legs to filet mignon - that p{expletive}y." I was mortified!

That's one of the extremes nowadays - it's hard to see a balance. Parents either won't talk at all about sex - or they expose their children to too much. I wonder which one is worse for the child. Will you become desensitized if your parents watch porn with you in the room, or will you become over-curious if your mom won't even say the word penis to you?

Not sure how to collect such data {{smile}}...