General Relationship DiscussionAlthough anyone can post anywhere on Talk About Marriage, this section is for people interested in general relationship and marriage advice.
Lon's post on the 'How Old Were You Thread' got me to thinking about this, and I don't want That_Girl to beat me with a monkey, so I'm starting a new thread.
So how did you learn about sex. How old were you? Did you grow up on a farm and always know? School? Mom and Dad? Friends? Did you pick up any interesting misinformation?
My dad gave me all the basic facts when I was 12, using a plastic model called The Visible Woman. I remember that you could take her flat belly off, put a fetus inside her and the put a pregnant belly on.
My mom. Very scientific. Very nonemotional. I was about 8 at that point. She wanted me to know the basics because I had heard some things at my school. A Catholic school, mind you. haha.
My school. Again, very clinical. Seemed AWFUL! I was 11.
My dad. Very real. but that was when I was an adult.
Other than that, sex was not discussed. Even now, as a married woman, if I allude to sex, my mom tells me to stop.
In my home, it's an on going conversation if need be. My daughter is free to ask me anything and I give her all sides of the answer as best I can. We've even googled a few things. Knowledge is power.
This is something on my radar as my parents did a horrible job and I have a 9 year old son I am determined to do better by.
I basically learned from a friend of mine's Playboy collection around 11. I think at 13/14 my father tossed me a book and told me to ask him if I had any questions. By the time he gave me that book it was like remedial math compared to what I had figured out on my own with a little help from Hugh.
Older cousins/uncles talking about their conquests and sharing very vivid details about it. Think I was 10 or 11 when I head those conversations.
Mom and dad didn't tell us jack! We were left to fend for ourselves lol.
OH, plus alot of porn from said older cousins, playboys, penthouse and VHS porn tapes.
That makes me sad. As parents, we owe it to our children to really teach them the fundamental reason for our existence. I never understood how people can get SO EMBARRASSED about something they do. It's not dirty or nasty or anything of the sort.
To learn about sex by watching porn is like learning about living in CA by watching "the hills" or other stupid CA 'reality' shows..
I always had a vague idea. But grade 5 or 6 in Catholic School we got the first of several "sex" as medical procedure talks. Joyless emphasis on hormones, periods and pregnancy. They succeeded in making it all sound as gross and unappealing as possible.
There wasn't even a hint that any of this could be fun and one was left wondering how you knew when you had successfully completed the insertion of Tab A into Slot B.
By grade 7 we were bored by these talks and successfully embarrassed the Health Ed teacher by "innocently' asking what was the reproductive function of the clitoris. They had always skipped over that part for some reason.
I always had a vague idea. But grade 5 or 6 in Catholic School we got the first of several "sex" as medical procedure talks. Joyless emphasis on hormones, periods and pregnancy. They succeeded in making it all sound as gross and unappealing as possible.
There wasn't even a hint that any of this could be fun and one was left wondering how you knew when you had successfully completed the insertion of Tab A into Slot B.
By grade 7 we were bored by these talks and successfully embarrassed the Health Ed teacher by "innocently' asking what was the reproductive function of the clitoris. They had always skipped over that part for some reason.
We had our sex ed given by a priest. His first words to us were: If you have sex before marriage, you'll go to hell.
Funny - I went to catholic school through 10th grade - they didn't do any better job than my parents did. For all they taught us we'd have thought babies came from storks.
My brother is 2 years older than me and my parents got him that book, "Where Did I Come From?" that explained sex in kid friendly terms when he was around 10 or 11. He just tossed it aside and me being the nerd who loved to read anything i could, I grabbed it and read it. So I actually found out before my brother did.
My sister was born when I was 7, so my Mom answered my questions about how she got here. I was so disgusted! No way was I going to let a grimy, loud-mouthed boy do that to me!
In 4th grade class. My parents didn't tell my anything. In 4th grade, we watched a really dry, boring film presentation about human reproduction. I remember the boy next to me telling me he thought the uterus and fallopian tubes looked like an antler's on a moose head. I nodded my head. I was just amazed I had all this stuff inside of me like thousands of eggs in my ovaries. I was horrified about menstruation. I was hoping it wouldn't happen to me.
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How did you learn about the facts of life? 
