Either that, or my mom is fibbing and never told me to begin with, haha.
Actually... I suddenly remember my mother bought a thin book about love making, pregnancy etc for my older sister. it was a kiddie story that told all the details in a really nice child-friendly way.
I recall reading that too, more than once. I found it intriguing. It was a story about a parent telling his child how babies were made and grew in their mother's bellies.
I think that's how I first came across it, probably along with some explanation from my mother.
I had totally forgotten about that! It suddenly came back as I was replying to your posting. I still even remember some pictures from the book. Amazing :)

I really think it is an antiquated concept.
I feel a kinship to the boy in the movie "Kindergarten Cop".

"Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina."

I had one therapist tell me to talk to my dad ... once about what and how I felt about somethings in my childhood I may not have liked ...

well that was a interesting conversation ... thinking back laughing ...
at what that might have been ... then I had another therapist tell me you can not blame your parents for your mistakes ... lol I got that lmao I have had a lot of therapy... some was really amazing ... which I am saying -> what a joke ... but not all
some good does stick...

Easy to think it's antiquated until your daughter turns 12-14-ish, has an increasing interest in boys, and can get pregnant. Then suddenly it becomes very important and contemporary!
Esp when you hear some of her friends get pregnant around age 15-16 without planning to, and your daughter finds it so interesting that she keeps telling you she wants a baby as well. At age 14.
Trust me, not so antiquated then

Having a son as well who's getting interested in girls. Hoping he remembers the antiquated talk and for crissake uses condoms if need be. Having nightmares of a girl's mother knocking on the door to tell me her daughter is preggers and my teenage son was the father.

Am I GLAD those days have gone, and both my kids are adults now and nothing of the sort happened. Neither have kids yet. Phew!

what's up

I thought it happened to emotionally bonded couples after long term exposure to pheromone chemicals in the air, until I was 12 and read the book. I was rather shocked they had kept the secret from me for so long.

Oh no. I wasn't inferring to avoid the subject.
I knew about the mechanics, stds, pregnancy, protection, etc, before age 10......even had a concept that emotional pitfalls exist (though that is really learned through experience), I just do not remember any "one" poignant defining moment.

The only "talk" I remember was more of a statement, not open for discussion.

"Sex is dirty, save it for marriage"

Made absolutely no sense to me as a child of 11 or so. Questions weren't allowed on that subject, so I learned most things in school, books (usually fairy tales or romance) and later on through my own experience.

Needless to say, I was a rather mixed up teenager and young adult


edited for typos

I remember 10th grade, the school added a Health Class for Sexual Education. There was a big hub bub about it but from the view of a student in that class it was fun, till it came time for taking the test.

My first test was taken with a light-hearted joking attitude and I failed miserably. Most of us failed miserably. After the teacher (a woman) explained to us that the grade was part of our requirements for passing health class we started taking it a bit more serious and I even studied as if it was a class.

One of the things those early sexEd classes focused on were the mechanics of sex and the responsibilities of sex but it failed miserably in the dynamics of real teenage life.

Condoms were taboo back then, stigmatized with embarrassment. The school promoted abstinence which did not fit the 60s lifestyles we were witnessing in real life. Much of my school was comprised of rural farmers. There was a high degree of religious morality that promoted virginity. We were divided between our religious morals and the peace & love of protest.

While SexEd provided me with the mechanics of the process of sex it was my morals and commitment that caused me to not fall into a promiscuous lifestyle. It was a period of high stress for me as my hormones fought a battle with my morals.

When my brother-in-law took time to sit down and discuss the responsibility of sex it pushed my morals to the front. What I didn't realize at the time was he was fighting a similar responsibility battle because his first born was coming. I often wonder what the outcome of "The Talk" would have been if it had been given by someone else?

By the time I was faced with giving "The Talk" to my own children, I had a hefty supply of wisdom on the subject and I was fairly in-tune with their social lifestyles.

As a word of caution to any of you that have "The Talk" in their future. I advise you to take an honest look at your child's lifestyle, not the lifestyle you think you know but the lifestyle as your child sees it. Listen to them and try not to dismiss their concerns. Try not to push your teenage influences onto them. They live in a different world than you did.

No. My parents weren't condescending and never treated me like I was stupid.
Nor did they ever try to pretend they were teachers or experts outside of their own particular niche.
If I had questions about something I was encouraged to get off my azz and go find the expert or book that would actually be best able to answer the question.

I do remember a doctors office thinking I was prank calling them after I asked if a woman could get pregnant if the egg broke along the fallopian tube. We had just had a thing in science where we had to build a contraption to protect an egg after throwing it off the school roof. Maybe 2 out of 30 contraptions kept the egg from breaking. Eggs are fragile.


We never measured. Hate to sound cocky, but I'm sure I would have beat them in any masturbation contest, hands down, or up. Puns intended.


Did I need to be?

I always felt that my parents left "the talk" to my Uncles who were only a few years older than me. I mean...hell....when you are 12 and your 17 year old uncle asks you, "Hey Goof! You jack off?"........you can pretty much assume the talk has commenced.

talk about a chain of memory jolts. i can suddenly and quite clearly remember a drive with dad in the pick up compulsory beer in hand eyes straight ahead on the road an out pops this statement...

it won't make you go blind

Well, we didnt have the talk...but when I was 11, my uncle in Cali hit me on the head with a Huslter Mag...He said go crazy...
I think I did!!!