Parents, if you had 'the talk' with your kids...

Just curious here, for everyone who did have the infamous talk with their kids about sex, how old were they when you did?

Informally. Her mother had a more proper sit down talk with her; our conversations have been more casual and impromptu.

My son is 12.5 and for the last year, I work stuff in when subjects arise, but I have never sat him down for an a-z talk. I know I need to do that.

It's funny that this question came up because I recently entered my mind the other day. I don't have kids but one of my best friends has 4 boys. Over a couple of beers at a backyard bar-b-que, he recently let it be known that he's caught the two oldest boys (ten year old twins) masturbating several times on different occasions already. His response was to "slap them on the pee pee" (because that's what was done to him when he was caught with a boner at that age). One of them was also caught staring at a porno mag that was found while cleaning up. The mag was snatched from him and he was humerously slapped on the butt (no big deal) everyone had a laugh about it.

But after the fact, I saw my friend (the father) shaking his head and lamenting about how his boys were growing up too fast and shouldn't be getting into "all that stuff" so young. We engaged in some back and forth about this for a while and acknowledging that I'm not a parent myself and can't tell him how to raise his kids, I basically let it be known (as a psychology major) that such behavior is "normal" and that he shouldn't be worrying about it. He's concerned that "they haven't even hit puberty yet and their already beating off". I told him that that's about the same age I was and that he can't judge the development of every child by his own anecdotal experiences (as a late bloomer). The boys are obviously curious about sex already (both of them) and I don't think he wants to address SEX with his kids (and their mother certainly won't). But simultaneously I let him know that punishing them for doing what's normal is not healthy parenting. I also told him that it is irresponsible as a parent to leave porn where they can find it, yet scold them for looking at it when they do. I think he got the picture and is taking the advice, but sooner rather than later "the talk" is going to have to come up.

I have to agree with this, from my own experience I had those boys beat by 2 years.

Supernova wrote:I have to agree with this, from my own experience I had those boys beat by 2 years.

I was about 10 myself, but my friend said he was closer to 13 so that's why he finds 10 to be "too young". It's all a matter of perspective.