HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?
To start: no, there are no "trusted male figures" in our lives. My brothers & father are all conservative, and I DO NOT trust them to properly explain things without shame and/or religious context.
My son knows the basics of reproduction, but I've never really explained what's "normal" things for a teenage boy to go through.. mainly because I don't know!
I've definitely put it off, so he's almost 14 and is much more physically mature than most of his peers (he's got hair in places, shaves his face regularly, etc.).. but I'm embarrassed to admit that I know next to nothing about anything else..
Could y'all help me out? What did you go through that he should know about? What should I know about?
Many thanks to anyone who can help. Please don't be unkind. Much appreciated.
EDIT: Thank you so much for all the advice so far!! Please keep it up!!
My son & I have very open communication & a very good relationship.
Always knock before entering his room
And wait for an answer. Don't just knock then immediately walk in. I'm nearly fifty and I'm still traumatized by this.
Yeah about that last point, it is easy to have sex with someone just because they also want it. However, you may regret it afterwards because maybe they want an actual relationship and you just wanted the sex because your hormones were making that decision for you. Or if you do it with a close friend, it can strain that relationship.
It's always best to decide what you plan to do before going into any situation that could potentially turn sexual. And stick to the plan. If something unexpected comes up, try to find a way to step away for a few minutes, let the hormones cool, and try to decide what you really want. It's the only way to be sure you're making a decision based on more than the instinct to have sex with everything.
Absolutely. I respect his privacy.
Sometimes he wears headphones in his room and I do have to crack the door to have him respond. Is that okay?
Tbh if he masturbates with headphones in the same house as his mother, it's an important lesson to learn to always keep one ear open for potential knocks. 🤭
Maybe warn him about that so he can avoid the potential trauma
Emphatically no.
Text him or something.
Edit: you do not want to make this mistake
just making sure you've seen this nested comment
Maybe put a “doorbell” with a light in his room that he can see.
Might go low-tech and just stick my arm in with a flashlight or something.
Does his door have a lock?
I think maybe it should.
Actually this is probably something good to discuss with him directly. Brainstorming ways of grabbing his attention in a way that respects his privacy together goes a long way toward earning good will, even if you make a mistake later on. Sometimes brain just stops working. My mom has always been good about respecting my privacy, but one day she just opened my door, something she never made a habit of doing and started talking... Right in the middle of some self-care.
As embarrassed as I was, we were laughing about it the day after. She was excited to tell me something nice is all, and I could trust her apology afterward because of our rapport. How could I stay mad?
I think one of the more important things you can get across to him is this:
Porn is fine, but it’s fiction. It’s no more real or realistic than the latest superhero blockbuster, and should be thought of that way. It’s entertainment, not education.
There are sex ed channels on Youtube. Good ones. Sexplanations is one, but there are also others. Seek those out.
I know this is going to be a very awkward conversation, but you have to understand this: he will be finding and watching porn, and most likely already is at 14. Don’t shame him for that. In any way. Let him know that you know, and that it’s normal, but that it’s important to think of it like it’s just the movies. Cos that’s what it is.
This.
I think it's important to point out that porn is as representative of real sex as action scenes are of real fights.
Instead, it's a stylised and codified version of things that specifically is designed to appeal to our lizard brains.
Also, get used to saying the word 'sex' around him. It's weird at first, but the best way to make it clear that it's all a normal part of growing up, is by acting like it's a normal part of growing up.
This, meanwhile on one hand it teached me how to pleasure a woman orally, on the other it created impossible expectations on other areas.
I learned properly about the g-spot and how to massage it with my fingers through a TV program about sex that was aired at nights.
Did you know that the g-spot never was proven to actually exist?
I'd like to tack on that this point can be used to highlight why this is so. It's a deep concept that can be explained simply and produces a lasting positive impact.
Everyone has fantasies. Sometimes we want them to be realized. Most often: we don't. Many people carry internal shame because of their fantasies and some of those people have difficulty with intimacy because of it.
Good sex with other people requires our investment in their comfort and pleasure. This can be emotionally complex and fulfilling to navigate. Masturbation is free of those complications but we often make up the difference via fantasy. This is normal and there's no need to confuse one space for the other. Masturbation and sex may fulfill similar basic needs on the surface but, in practice, they are very different exercises. It's normal for one's preferences to be different for each and for those preferences to shift over time.
Don't worry about "normal". Focus on having a healthy, honest, and emotionally aware sex life instead.
Also relevant - you can't smell porn. Everyone has a scent, especially when doing a physical activity.
As a guy, best I can say is educate him on what women go through. Make sure he knew what is going on, so he doesn't look like an idiot with a woman. And so he isn't like me and learn about how periods actually work when he's almost thirty because he doesn't get a joke in a movie.
What he needs to learn at this age isn't what he will do through, school will do that for him. He needs to know what others will go through. Religious thinking kept most of female anatomy out of the public schools I went to.
So what movie taught you about periods?
Happy Feet. (the sequel obviously)
Ahh, thought it would have been Crimson Tide
I could have said The Shining :p
There are books for children on this. Lots of them. Read a few and pick ones that fit your values. I suggest providing a few.
He is hearing information already. Much of it wrong.
Plenty of good advice in this thread.
I'm gonna shout out the boy version of the book "what's happening to my body?"
https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Happening-Body-Book-Boys/dp/1557047650
It was super helpful to me in puberty, even with trusted male figures. It's written from a non-judgemental, information focused space. It also let's him has some way of privately seeking knowledge that isn't just whatever he finds on the internet
I agreed. There is more to raising a son than discussing masturbation.
Being a women is not an excuse for not being able to research these topics around male adolescence.
There are tons of materials and without more information it is not possible to know what the knowledge gaps are and op needs to start reading to find theirs.
When I was 14 my dad came into my room right before the homecoming dance and handed me a bunch of condoms. That was about all of the talk I got. That said, I was 19 when my first kid was born… but that is a whole different issue.
You didn't use the condoms. 😔
Maybe ha ran out.
They're not video game power ups! You can buy more son!
You can buy those too these days
As a broke college kid, I could not.
My college gave them away for free. The wellness center just had a big bowl of them outside the door. Grab what ever when you walked by. They only had them out during school hours when they had someone working the desk, so it wasnt really a concern that people would be poking holes or some shit in them.
The wellness center would even come to any organization and give a free "safe sex" talk if you wanted them to, and that came with its own goody bag with more than just condoms. It was awesome
At the beginning of the school year it has been that way, but then they started to ration them.
Might have broken if they were 5 years old when he used them
Male puberty happens a bit later than female puberty; at almost 14 he's either in the thick of it or just about done.
I don't think male puberty is quite as "what the Lovecraftian fuck is happening to me right now" as female puberty. His voice either has or will drop, this isn't physically painful but it's not fun how people react to it sometimes.
He is going to GROW. When I was 15 I outgrew a pair of shoes overnight. Came home from school one day, took my shoes off, went to bed. Woke up the next morning, those same shoes didn't fit. In the next couple years he's probably going to have some joint or bone aches just from growing so much. My parents fed me Tylenol which did basically nothing, I'm not convinced Tylenol works. It'll slow down by the time he's out of high school but where girls are pretty much at adult size at 18 boys will keep growing a bit into their early 20s.
He's gonna get stronger. Sometimes it's going to sneak up on him; prepare for the occasional moments of didn't know his own strength style clumsiness.
Physical activity is a good idea; sports, marching band, shop class, if you can get him up and moving during the day and not packed into a classroom it'll be good for his brain. Boys don't really do well sitting in a classroom all day.
For the above three reasons he is going to have a VORACIOUS appetite. I ate 5,000 calories a day and struggled to gain weight in high school. Let the kid eat. A hungry teen is an angry teen. Somewhere around 19 or 20, either in college or in the get a job part of life, that growth spurt is tapering off and there's less physical activity inherent in life, so the need for calories is going to decrease but his ordering habits won't. 19 years old is about time to start ordering medium combo meals.
You can expect a certain amount of teenage moodiness; his brain is rewiring itself. He'll have feelings. Society isn't okay with this. He'll learn how to express nothing but anger or amusement. This is ultimately for the best; once he's an adult he will be expected to do two things: Work and die. Having feelings is accomplishing neither of those so he is expected to...never do that. Some people will ask him for displays of emotions; he will quickly learn that they are not interested in his actual feelings because those would require, like, dealing with or whatever. They want to see an impromptu rom-com performance.
Unexplained genital pain is never normal in males; "it hurts, and it has hurt for awhile now" is reason to see a doctor.
Puberty ends at about 21-23 for women and 23-25 in men. The brain does some crazy af pruning of neurons between 13 and 23. While the actual hormone flood starts early, the entire process takes much longer to complete on a brain function level.
Really off topic, but can you tell what happened with the shoe situation afterwards? What did you do then?
Just about the time me and my mother started brainstorming solutions, my father walks in the room and says "What are y'all fussing about?" and when the situation is explained to him he rolled his eyes and threw a pair of his tennis shoes at my feet.
Besides all the good advice in the thread, about condoms:
He should be somewhat comfortable with putting on condoms, he has to train that before it becomes necessary. There are plenty of videos explaining it, let him find them and check them out on his own terms. Let him know not every brand fits every man. He will need to overcome the awkwardness of buying them in drug stores or supermarkets, if he finds it awkward at all, he has to get over himself and do it. A possible motivation could be that if girls can buy their period products, he can buy his dick wraps.
I find it very commendable that you think about this problem!
I'd also like to mention that while condoms do stretch, proper sizing is still important. I wish I had realized that earlier.
thanks, i wanted to comment something similar - training is necessary, and i would have been very pleased if someone told me that condoms are not a "one size fits all"-thing at all
As a male, not much really happens, other than feeling grumpy as hell pretty much all the time, an undeserved sense of superiority after realizing how logic works, and a fucking intense sex drive. I cannot stress the last part enough, teenage boys are a horny bunch and, thanks to the internet, will probably masturbate multiple times a day. What you should tell him, and hope it enters his brain, is that the more porn he consumes, the less likely he'll be to feel satisfied with actual sex, which can lead to disappointing relationships later on.
Another couple of comments said to "knock before entering his room". If you want to "assert authority", open without knocking and, if you catch him in the act, just nonchalantly tell him to "do it elsewhere and clean up properly" - if anything, teach him to wipe it dry and don't use water to clean up. He will feel ashamed from being caught, but if you, as his mother, treats it as something natural and expected, hopefully he'll get the right idea that, yes, that is something to be done in privacy, but not necessarily something to feel ashamed of.
Talk about sex. Tell him that he must wear a condom when he does it and to keep a bottle of lube to help (water based lube only, oils will wreck condoms)
Lastly, if he ever brings a girlfriend home, tell her to only do it with a condom and to not accept any of his possible excuses to not use one.
Opening anyone's door without knocking is just being a dick and violating another person's privacy.
Don't use water to clean up? What the fuck?
Semen becomes super sticky and kind of "curdles" when mixed with water and becomes significantly harder to clean off.
Dry clean first with toilet paper or some disposable cloth, then wash with water and plenty of soap.
NRK had a series on puberty that is no-nonsense, straight to the point. It was hosted by a physician. Most of it is on YouTube, and from a very brief look has English subtitles. Warning, it contains full frontal nudity of people at various ages. It is rated for children in Norway, but might be shocking to someone not used to seeing nipples on TV. It should be quite informative. Watch it yourself and decide if you want your son to see it. I have no idea if it is geoblocked.
::: spoiler spoiler https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJX8EALqb4PzmhYdnK6AxcAhm45FyCCK- :::
They are all hidden. At least here in Brazil.
If he suddenly really wants to do his laundry one morning, don't ask questions. (Wet dreams and embarassment being the context here.)
That's about all I can think of that's gendered, really.
I was ~9 when I got the talk from my Dad, and it was basic stuff about just the mechanics. It set things up so that, around 13, I went to him with questions about how I was feeling re: puberty. So even now it'll be helpful to do the talk and show that you're available as a resource.
In your case, your son likely has some idea from internet pornography and whatever he got in school, but it would still be helpful to go through the basics with him. I'd frame it as "I'm sure you know most of this, but i just want to make sure you know what's important." It might also be helpful to make clear that pornography is as much acting as TV is - don't set his expectations on it, it's people faking things for money.
Going over the importance of condom use also helpful at his age. Keep in mind, it's not necessarily about what he's going to use right away, but making sure he knows when he does need to know.
Then, I'd just be there for him and ask if he has any questions, and answer them frankly. Tell him he can come back later if he's unsure.
It's awkward and tough I'm sure, but it'll be a help not just now, but going forward. Good luck!
Eh, it'll dry (children are gross).
At some point. For the love of all that is holy you MUST tell you son the following: Never come in a woman unless you want a baby. Even if she tells you to. Even if she claims she is protected.
NEVER COME IN A WOMAN WITH WHOM YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE A BABY
Women will baby-trap the living fuck out of young men. He NEEDS to know this.
Was with you until this line. C'mon now.
It does happen. Had a woman poke holes in all of the condoms in my nightstand when I was 18. She later admitted she thought I was going to leave her when I was going to a University and she was going to the state college. I'm sure it is rare that such happens, but I wouldn't fully dismiss it. I was paranoid after that and always went to the bathroom after and filled the condom with water to make sure they hadn't broke or had a hole in them after sex. It wouldn't do anything to prevent it at that point, but at least I had the peace of mind I guess that I knew it wasn't leaking and could get a 9 month head start on planning.
It absolutely happens, no doubt! Never disagreed with that!
But putting out such a general statement like "women will baby-trap you!" is such a broad statement. Statements like that are often used to stir up hostility and is a common tactic used in spaces that are anti-women.
Me saying "men will assault you!" would not be acceptable and would get me attacked and downvoted to hell. It's astounding to me that statements like this about women are supported.
Yeah, a better way to put it would be "There are women that may attempt baby-trap you, and you should always be mindful of that"
Absolutely.
Yeah it really wasn't the response I expected to teaching your child about their body. Not sure what that person has been through, but it did seem random. I expected responses like how to properly clean oneself.
Yeah.. don't love the "women will be actively trying to ruin your life"–angle.
However, it's a good idea to let him know that some potential partners will have bad/manipulative intentions, no matter the gender, and how to look out for that.
I made no mention of my kid's orientation, so.. make of that what you will. Lol
Yeah, people make stupid decisions no matter their gender, ideologies, or whatever else. I think one of the things I wish I would have learned more about at that age was the absence of structure. School is all very structured. Everything is about checking a box. Get this prerequisite, go to these classes. Be there at set times, get a set grade level and you will be fine. Get a certain score on the SAT/ACT or what not and you will be fine. Everything is almost definite. Once you leave high school/college there really isn't any of that for your life unless you create it yourself. Get a job sure, within that job they will have structure. Nothing is telling people to check these 3 boxes and then move out of that job in 3 years and into the next step, as the steps no longer exist and staying in a single job is unlikely to land you where you need to be successful. Loyalty to a company doesn't mean you will get raises or promotions. I wish I would have spent more time creating the maps and goals I want to achieve outside of the structure given to me, and work on achieving those goals and creating timelines they need to be done by. A certificate to move up/diagonal in my field, map it out and when and where you want to throw those 100 resumes out too and hope one of them will come back. Then already be working on other structured steps curated for my life aspirations.
I procrastinate on many of those things, because there are no due dates. It's go to work, make dinner, clean, mow lawn, take care of chickens, blah blah blah to get to the next day week year, but then you never get around to improving yourself because I never set required boxes for me to check.
Lemmy.world is worse than fucking reddit was with gender relations lmfao
Weirdos end up on Lemmy. Many of us are a splendidly wonderful, if pedantic, sort.
And then there's the weirdos that... aren't that. The ones who never built social skills or the ability to look at the world from beyond their own limited experiences. The ones who extrapolate with reckless abandon, usually in the traditional directions of punching down.
I'm sorry if they or someone they know got baby-trapped, but that is DEFINITELY not the usual nor should it be phrased like it is.
I'm more shocked at the amount of upvotes the comment has.
His point isn't wrong. He could have explained it better but telling a teenage boy how to not get girls pregnant regardless of what they tell him is not a bad idea. I definitely had experiences with girls I slept with telling me not to worry about it and at least one of them went on to have a teen pregnancy by another dude. They weren't trying to trap me. They were just dumb. So was I and I got really lucky that there were no consequences. Teenagers say and do dumb shit and the more cognizant your son is of that the better. If he's anything like me he's not going to be thinking about consequences in the moment.
The above sentence is the one I'm taking a stand against. The rest was fine up until that.
You are 100% correct to have an issue with that. My point was more to answer why he is still getting upvotes. The premise of his comment about not cumming in women you don't want to impregnate is correct. The motivation of the woman is pretty irrelevant to the conversation. He is wrong about that but it's not the main point.
You need to understand that is one of a host of reasons and things that can be said. I'm not going to write a 40-page essay. Frank talk is necessary, too bad you can't see that and choose to focus on the gender thing. That's really about you and not me. Frank talk about all aspects of sex is vital. Get a grip.
edit: And I'm not going to sit here and qualify my statements carefully in case you're too in-the-weeds to focus on underlying points. I don't need to "not every woman" and bs like that. You should be smart enough to not need constant pandering to and kid glove treatment.
Do you think "frank" means "without nuance or care for how what I'm saying could be misconstrued as bigotry"?
Like, literally the only change I know I'd like to see is "there are some women who" and like... that's hardly an imposition, y'know? Definitely not a "40 page essay" either.
Doesn't even need to be a trap, accidents happen (i.e. missing a dose of birth control).
yeah honestly this is the only thing
This is utter nonsense. Condoms work 99% of the time, and most women aren't horrible people.
First off....you are a great parent. Respect. The most important thing I wish I heard at 14 is that changes are normal, sexual desire is normal, a teenagers body is spurting growth and this may be awkward, but also normal.
When I was 14, my knees hurt because of my growth spurts.
When I was 14, there were a lot of awkward arousals that I had to cover with my back back.
When I was 14, I was still smaller compared to others, by 18 I was towering above everybody.
When I was 14 I was a coward with girls. When I really shouldn't have been.
When I was 14, I was bullied, and wish with all my heart, I would have Stood up for myself...if I had a cthwr figure to tell me that instead of teachers telling me to be peaceful Instead.
Hell, maybe a big brother program would help.
Hell, if you are desperate, DM me.....maybe I can help
Aside from basic biological stuff, trust and consent. Consent is required. Trust no one you don't know extremely well and are in a committed relationship (especially as regards protection and contraception).
I wonder if educational videos exist on this. I assume so somewhere. As a dude in his 40s not having kids, I thought "maybe I should reach out to volunteer to help" but, at the same time, realize there are so many weirdos on the internet I would always say no in the same circumstance. Maybe if there are no educational vids, I could try to create something.
Raising kids is hard. Good on you for trying to do things properly. Best of luck!
I never received any kind of talk from my parents. Also, in my home country, during the communist era and even after, sex ed in schools was taboo. Crazy thing too, since it had (and still has) one of the highest teen pregnancy numbers in Europe.
Anyway, I did not want that with my kids. Luckily where we live now there is a strong sex ed program in schools, but also at home, we were always open. We talk about sex casually, we reiterate "always ask for consent" and "no means no", and my son even ratted out one of his school buddies who's a Tate fan. He knew that what the guy was saying was wrong, so they don't hang out anymore.
Also, sexuality. One of my daughters came out to us over dinner, so casually, "dad, I think I'm gay". I just said "cool" and gave an awkward fist bump.
Just be open, casual, don't make things weird.
I think the two big things I have to add are:
Don't let the church educate your son on these things.
Don't say nothing.
If you're unsure about talking to them about these things yourself, seek out a man you trust, talk to them about it and make sure your values align, and then talk to your son about them together.
Unfortunately, I do not have any close male friends, so I may need to address things myself.
Ah, didn't mean for my advice to seem disparaging in anyway, so I apologize if that seemed the tone of it.
Luckily, as others have mentioned on the thread, there's a ton of great resources online to help you out. You're going to do great, and when your son is older, he'll be grateful that you took the time.
No no! I just get frustrated with myself for not always being able to provide proper resources for him.
I do appreciate the help! Thank you.
You're welcome. You're going to do great. :)
Vocally theres gonna be cracks as it deepens. It sucks, nothing to be done.
There will be at least one wet dream if not more, Hydrogen peroxide soak, then wash with OxiClean should rock those stains as both are recommended for 'protein'. Wash cold.
Erections at random times will 100% happen. It's expected.
Acne will happen, body is a wreck of hormones. Use a new pillowcase nightly, do skincare, should largely be fine. If it gets wild prescription stuff might be needed.
Thats all the big puberty stuff really, short of whether the quarterback or head cheerleader makes his pp into the big pp but thats a whole other discussion.
I wish I had known when I was young that you can stealthily flex muscles like hamstrings and glutes to end an unwanted erection. It draws blood to those muscle groups and away from the erection.
John and Hank Green's CrashCoarse is about to release a new sex ed series. I watched their whole computers series and thought it was fantastic.
Kid is lucky to have you.
I had a mum and a dad, and they did their best, but I wish they had been more interested with my well being in this way.
You're doing great.
By the time you are 14, you have probably figured out everything about yourself. Tell him what girls want and think at his age. When i was a kid, my friend was dead convinced that all girls prefer anal sex, cause "that doesn't hurt". He based that, I assume, entirely on porn he had seen.
My parents didn't really give me a talk, where I live we have pretty comprehensive sex education in school that starts at 8/9 and finishes around 14/15.
At 13, maybe he's already been given some kind of education about his body (especially since he already shaves and has already probably had wet dreams and discovered masturbation). Do you know what he already knows?
Family isn't going to work for you, but do you have male friends or work colleagues you trust enough to ask for advice?
Honestly, the majority of key points to talk about can be found online from respectable sources (for example, this article from Johns Hopkins, though there are many others). There is a better than even chance he has shady looked up the "Is this normal" stuff himself if he has normal internet access.
From a social standpoint it's going to be different for everyone, teenage years are hard and kids are often cruel. I'd advise to just be there for him on this front, but don't be pushy. He is going to be moody, lash out sometimes, and act differently. That is all normal. He is going to want to push boundaries and get in trouble (rather do things that will get him in trouble, most folks don't actually want to get in trouble). Give him safe room to explore who he is and to try new things without letting him fall down too hard.
Lastly, you say there are no trusted male figures in your life, but that doesn't have to be family. Good friends can also fill that space. I have to imagine there is some guy in your life that could have heart to heart, even just with you to then talk to your son. It's worth trying to broaden your expectation of what a trusted male figure is perhaps.
Been thinking a lot about this post and tried to come up with some things that weren’t already mentioned. Sorry for writing a book.
This was mentioned once but you really have to talk to him about porn. He can literally find it on the same device he calls you on. It’s not real life but he might not know that yet or understand why. I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t allow it, just that he absolutely has already encountered it and it’s likely already shaping what he finds desirable without him knowing it. (I like porn. I think it’s mostly a good thing. I do not miss trying to figure wtf was real vs what someone’s older brother made up to mess with me.)
I think lots of people have focused on sex and sexuality (for obvious reasons) but this is a moment where his relationships with friends and potential romantic interests are going to begin changing. It might be worth asking him what he needs from those different groups in his life. My friends weren’t supportive of me having a girlfriend at 14 cause they didn’t like her and it basically caused me to dig my heels in and hold onto that relationship longer than I should have.
I’m also surprised that more people didn’t mention talking with him about drinking and drugs. I don’t have any advice on what to say there. I just wish I hadn’t had to figure that stuff out totally on my own.
Ultimately, I’m glad to hear that you and your son have a good relationship where you can talk about things. The things he needs to talk with you about will change but there’s no substitute for knowing that you care.
EDIT: if you were specifically looking for the mechanics of how to hide a boner, you swing it around to 12 o’clock, tuck it up behind the waistband of the pants, and pull the boxers over it. Going down into the pants will make it more visible.
I think you and your son having an open communication is a very good thing. Be prepared, though, that this can change. This can be due to feelings of shame getting stronger during puberty.
Be patient and remain open to communication and it most likely will return.
Also, find trustworthy sources of information your son can access to find answers to his questions and respect him when he wishes to inspect there on his own (again, if you remain open and respectful, he probably either keep confiding in you or will again if he doesn’t at some point).
And from personal experience, I can add: it helps if you’re also open to learning things from him! I know I’ve learned lots from the younger generation, even though I thought I was knowledgeable enough! (Especially lingo and how to give and check for consent in non disruptive ways)
As a father, I didn’t even know what to do or expect, we’re all messy, gross, and dumb at that age. The path I chose, was if they knew enough to ask a question, it was time for a discussion. Just pay attention, offer a safe environment for questions and be honest. Most of what they need to learn the world with teach them. Be there to fact check and maybe even learn together. Last tip… WE made biology gross and taboo, WE can make it less so for our kids.
Visit your local library for resources on sexual health and wellness! It's good for you to know too. Everyone should know about the reproductive system, anatomy, STDs, how to prevent them, and what vaccines and medicines can treat or prevent STDs (For example, PrEP pills can make you nearly immune to HIV).
Fwiw, it is probably good to explain sexuality too. Or at least have books with solid sections that explain it. I always crushed on and dated girls, but then started getting nervous when I started finding boys cute too. It added a great deal of stress to my daily life. My parents thought I was straight, then kinda mangled it when I came out the first time.
There's no instruction manual for raising kids, but like...you can definitely have the knowledge ready so that you aren't caught off guard :)
Lots of great replies, just want to add that if he's uncircumcised and you haven't covered the topic yet; washing under the foreskin is important hygiene. Same with washing his ass while we're on the topic of hygiene.
He probably has more of a clue about what happens with dudes than with women. Which you could tell him about.
Oh, one thing. If he's circumcised he probably uses some kind of lube to masturbate. It might not be condom compatible though. So if he has sex and they use lube because they've heard it hurts less then they could break the condom. That's not commonly discussed. I don't think you have to discuss how silicone lubes aren't great with sex toys.
Then you should probably talk to him about hurting during sex. Foreplay should be nice enough that you could do it all the way to orgasm. Whether it's a vagina or a butthole it shouldn't hurt by the time you put an erect penis in there. Taylor Tomlinson has a bit about how growing up Christian was good for her sex life because it meant she did everything up to "the deed". And porn, as others have mentioned, has a tendency to skip those bits. And kissing is also foreplay!
Speaking of comedy, Jerry Seinfeld did a bit about him watching a laundry commercial for a product that could also remove blood. And he jokes about how he isn't a serial killer so why would he need that. So tell your son a bit about sanitary bins, pads that don't always get everything while you are sleeping, stuff like that. It's not scary and he shouldn't be Menstrual Guy ally supreme but he needs to be told things he can't experience himself.
First things first, I'd suggest looking into Big Brothers, Big Sisters if you're in America. I've been a part of their program and it's a great organization dedicated to helping kids exactly like this
OK, onto real advice: it sounds like you're a woman and one of the things you need to address early with young men is respect. He will become significantly stronger than you very soon. He will have a ton of hormones pumping through his body. He is going to become dangerous to himself and others. He will be curious about how strong he is. You have to make sure he explores that safety. This is something all men go through and it's important to have a good foundation or he can start spiraling down bad paths. You need to police his internet usage, his friends, and his role models or he could very easily start sliding into anti-women and abusive views
If he's not enrolled in any sort of physical activity I would encourage you to find one. He's going to have basically unlimited energy and channeling that into sports is usually better than the alternatives. That's also tricky because you need to pay attention to the leadership of those activities to ensure that they are good influences
Now the fun stuff: he is going to be hungry for the next 5 years. If you haven't grown up with boys it's hard to understand but he can eat 6000 calories in a day and barely notice. My family used to order 2 pizzas when I was a teen, I would eat an entire one and they would eat the other. I'm not exaggerating when I say my average food in a day was a full continental breakfast, 2 deli sandwiches, chips, a dessert and a soda for lunch, an after school snack (usually leftovers), a large dinner, and dessert. I'm not a fat guy, nor was I in school. You will likely think at some point "he can't possibly be eating that much food" and I assure you that he can
Ultimately what is important is that you have to build a good moral foundation for him. You will lose the ability to control him and when that happens all of the work you've done raising him will reflect in the way he acts
Yeah, it's definitely not an "every male" thing. But other than that, it does contain good advice if it does end up being relevant. And if non-conservative males are tough to find in her area, odds are higher that her son could be encountering those types of influences outside the home.
I was a "relatively" weak guy growing up, videogames with no exercise or weights, I did do some physical chores and participated in most of my gym classes, lol, but I was for sure still way stronger than my mom, and she had a manual labour job. It is unfortunately very likely to be the case even if you grow up a nerd as a guy. And, in the potential case of him growing up athletic with a non-athletic mom, it can indeed be a huge difference. Not quite a shrek and fiona thing... but not as far off as we'd hope.
It can be a reasonable fear as a single mom to a teen guy growing up in a conservative area. And while it isn't a description of every guy, if the description is sounding like it fits, then those are valid concerns and things that should be addressed and headed off before they can't be.
My brother wasn't very athletic either, but a little more than I was. And he wasn't very rebellious, but a little more than I was. Only once did he ever hurt our mom physically, and it was when he was 13 and treated her the same way he would treat his friends in a heated argument, just gave her a shove... they both learned very quickly that a different approach was needed. That was with a kid who felt bad that he hurt his mom... we had friends(temporarily) that didn't feel bad about that... those friends stopped being friends pretty quick and are mostly in jail or dead now.
We live in a small town, not super religious or conservative, but I would guess about half and half. And it was about 10% of boys that this advice applied to. In a place where conservatism or religion are further entrenched, that percentage doesn't just go up linearly. The less sources of proper behaviour you see to counter the argument that people should behave "naturally"... even the nerds eventually succumb.
Be glad you had a childhood where this advice comes across as ridiculous.
I'm not saying it "does" fit. I'm writing that to her. As she gave no indication or contraindication to whether it applies. Other than asking what our experiences were and what relevant advice would have fit our experiences.... these are experiences that were had, and the advice that would go with them.
Your life was different, you gave advice that fit yours, thank you for your advice. We also gave advice.
If that is where you are coming from, I think it might be worth giving the first message in this thread a second read. You may have brought more to it than what was written. I agree that it's not "100%" as they stated, but it is -a- percentage and shouldn't just go unsaid. Other than the "guaranteed" wording, the message is pretty much the same as what you are saying.
Just change all the "will"s to "might"s. And keep in mind it is written for todays youth, not our childhood, this kid has access to social media streams that can very easily reinforce bad ideas as much as they can good ideas.
Have you seen young men without good role models in their life? I have, they break things and hurt people. There are exceptions to every rule obviously, but especially in the growing toxic male culture that we have right now young men are in precarious positions. I'm a huge fucking nerd, I built my own computer in high school and was captain of the quiz bowl team. It's still important to find positive and healthy outlets for the energy young men have. This poster specifically pointed out that they do have toxic male influences in their life already. Keeping active is never bad advice and while I may have been over emphasizing some things, it's important to address behavior now before he starts driving, working, going out on his own, etcetera etcetera
I'd tell him his number one goal should not be to get his rocks off. He should focus solely on being friends with lots of different girls. Everyone eventually learns sex. It takes much longer to meet someone you just get along with and could become your ride or die. Male/female relationships come in all varieties. Learn them all.
For real, go to a library and ask a librarian for help.
They'll have various books aimed at different levels of maturity and reading levels. Get a book, read it yourself, then ask him to read it and talk about what you learned.
There is a wealth of resources regarding sexuality and thematics for adolescents in general available here: https://www.youmo.se/en/
also, Big Mough comes recommended by the city of reykjavik, which has lots of stuff regarding sexuality and gender issues, but not all in english.
i want to emphasise training how to use a condom, finding out the correct size is something that's on his to do list. Proper hygiene is also learned (my parents didn't give a shit and it caused me problems far longer than necessary) - tell him if he needs to shower, body odor changes fast during puberty, and it's easy to be nose-blind to your own smell.
I saw someone recommend giving a gift card for a sex toy - i think that's a good idea, the sex drive in puberty was constant and to be honest at times annoying and distracting,
If you want my honest advice, the major considerations are that boys turn nonstop-horny for a few years, before that naturally stops.
Apart from that, yeah, general self-development. But that will take time, and experience(s)
Non-stop?
yep, more or less at least that was my experience
If I thought there were pictures of naked girls on the other side of a brick wall and I had no tools, I would have fucked that wall to dust to get at them. I might have been an aggressively horny boy tho. Also FYI I wound up having sex at fifteen, so get that talk in ASAP.
Nope didn't like this comment
In this day and age with the internet, I doubt there's much he doesn't know about in terms of how it works.
I would pull up statistics on stds and on the cost of raising a kid. Explain to him that almost 1 in 8 people have herpes and it never goes away, and how teen pregnancy really can fuck up future opportunities.
I think today it is more important to counter the incorrect things a child could be learning from pornography than the basics like "your penis may get hard when you think about girls." They probably know the latter but not about STDs, unplanned pregnancy, and rape / sexual coercion being major problems.
Besides all the stuff related to sex that many people have already written down here:
That it is normal to have overwhelming emotions at this age. It's fine if he gets angry, or sad or whatever. Find an outlet for that emotion.
He is gonna get a long stronger. It is important to approach this with sensibility: saying stuff like "strong men are dangerous" or "men are strong and women are weak" etc can actively harm young men's mental health. I'm sure there are good resources for this online as well, though I'm not sure where. He needs to realize that he will need to control how much force he puts into things much more than as a child, but at the same time that people are not afraid of him and should not be.
In my region this is handled really well by schools. Parents don't need to worry about anything. Don't they do that in your region?
There are books for that, that usually take all the important bits and put them in funny, engaging ways. It could be a nice thing to get, even read together.
Here's what I wish people had explained to me when I was approximately your son's age and which should cover most of what he's going through:
(I am assuming your son is heterosexual. If he is not, then you have to change this somewhat, but I can't help you with that very much because I'm heterosexual myself.)
You probably noticed that for a few years now, when you look at or think of girls, your penis gets hard and much bigger; this is because you started puberty. That is called an erection and is a completely normal thing to happen; it's your body telling you that it would like you to have sex with that girl. Erections will immediately go away when you ejaculate, which is a completely normal and very pleasurable thing to do. You can ejaculate without having sex with anyone by masturbating, that is, by rubbing your penis against your hands or some other object. It helps to think of beautiful girls when doing that. I have no problem at all with you doing this and you will never get in trouble for doing it or asking anyone any questions about it, but I insist that you do it when no one is watching, preferably in your own room.
Have you reached out to his coaches/PE teachers at school?
I live in a conservative area and do not trust folks to educate him from those angles.
Angles? What does this mean?
The typical conservative has a black-and-white view of sex and gender norms. "A man provides for his household and a women cares for the children"–type of thing, with very unhealthy views on sex, sexuality, and gendered expectations.
Hell, I was told that it was my "purpose" to one day marry, have children, and dote on my husband's every whim, and that, as a woman, it should be my desire.
Another big thing is healthy boundaries, consent, and other things. Many believe in "the chase", how women need to "submit to their husband", slut-shaming, the """proper manly emotions""" (hint: the only acceptable emotion is anger!), and those are just a few issues.
It's not healthy, and I'm not going to risk someone teaching that kind of thing to my kid.
EDIT: Downvote this if you want, but I was raised in a conservative town by a conservative family with conservative values and hung out in conservative spaces that left me scarred and traumatized. Sorry if it hurts your feelings knowing that a majority of conservatives beliefs are harmful and shitty! (:
From the "conservative" point of view.
They're generally not big on healthy sex education or relationships.
I'm gonna guess abstinence only etc.
There are these things called books...
Oh that's great. Which ones? I doubt that Pride and Prejudice or The Very Hungry Caterpillar are very helpful here.
If you can't even recommend any book on this topic, then your comment really doesn't help OP at all.