Sharon

This thread was inspired by a question and response on the "Hotseats" thread:

My experience is very similar. I was 8 and one of the other girls told us about how she walked in on her parents. She thought her dad was hurting her mom because her mom was "crying", and her parents sat her down a little later and explained that it was their way of expressing their love for each other, a simplified view of the mechanics and that actually mummy liked it very much.

I remember thinking it was crazy that anything that big could be put inside me (the girl said her dad's was "not like the boys, it was as big as my hand") and that it would surely hurt like hell.

What was your experience like?

tecoyah

My babysitter taught me....she was a good teacher

Sultana

Hehe, my mom was pregnant with my little sister when I was 6/7, and I often accompanied her to her medical appointments. I was really only interested in how the baby was going to get out (possibly my first recorded use of "What the hell?"). Later on I asked how the baby got in there to start with, and was appalled by the answer (although I appreciated the use of the illustrated posters on the office walls).

It was then and there that I decided to never participate in either the miracle of birth nor the joy of sex. One I held to, the other I did not. You may guess which it was.

Later on (7/8 years old) I remember asking my mom if a man and a woman (heh--only funny because that's how every sex explaination started out, "When a man and a woman love each other very much...") had sex in a pool, did the chlorine in the water deform the sperm, and was that how mermaids were born?

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Plan9

I was oblivious until I was like 13. Then I found a Playboy.

I still played with my Legos and GI Joes until I was like 15.

Then the hormones came and I was angst'd out like all get-out.

Didn't meet a girl until I was 18. I'm a real late bloomer type.

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Willravel

I was about 12 years old when I went to science camp and we had a Q&A session with out camp councilor who was more than willing to be totally honest. He seriously gave us the whole lot of collective information on the process of reproduction from flirting to long term dating, skipping no detail. I was defloured by around 13 I think. By an older woman.

slimshaydee

I learnt pretty much everything from the neighbours kids when I was ~4 years old. My parents were also very open about things and explained them to me honestly whenever I had questions.

777

5th grade sex ed. And it was my turn to work the projector Kinda felt bad for the kid whose parents refused to sign the permision slip to attend that part of class.

Slightly before that, my aunt was pregnant with my little cousin when I was 6. Until 5th grade, I always thought that the baby would could out of the mother's ass.

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fresnelly

A combination of Sex Ed. classes and listening to Sue Johanson's phone-in radio show. My parents never said a word on the matter.

I still remember a funny bit from an educational movie we saw in Grade 7 about a boy fruitlessly looking for clear answers from everyone he knows. His befuddled dad does his best using a sports analogy: "See, boys have their uh ...baseball bats, and girls have their um, ...catcher''s mitts."

Was anyone here actually given the "birds and the bees" analogy? That must be confusing.

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Hyacinthe

when I was 10 we started getting the sex ed classes - before that my parents had given me a series of books about sex / puberty / pregnancy when I asked why boys looked different to girls at about age 6.

Along the lines of

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Did-Come.../dp/0818402539

Interesting first reading choice by my parents hey?

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ratbastid

I don't remember ever not knowing. Even when my mom sat my little brother and me down for the talk (I was probably 6), I already knew.

Of course the unit we did in 6th grade, euphemistically named "Maturation", filled in the specific anatomical details...

StellaLuna

My mom bought a book and had it stored away for when I was "old enough to understand." I found it when I was probably 6 or 7, read it, walked into the kitchen shaking it at my mother and saying, "We need to have a talk."

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Midnight

I read VERY early and was reading readers digest and found an ad for these:

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Cycle-Lib.../dp/0385003765

and walked into the kitchen where my parents were having their morning coffee and announced that if they bought me these books, they wouldn't have to talk to me about it themselves. I was 7 or 8 at the time

They ordered them. I'm 34 now and have never once talked to either of my parents about sex.

LoganSnake

My mom says that I've been asking her questions about it since I was 3-4 years old. I don't remember it. The farthest back I can remember was when I was 6-7 and my friends were discussing it. They were mostly right, as I've found out a few years later.

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RenaissanceII

Well, there were the Playboy magazines that were in the barber shop that dad took me to as a kid (this was way back when PB showed no bush, yeah that makes me a crusty ol....).

But the real education began with a reference book from The Zauel Memorial Library, I was sooo embarrassed over that I 'borrowed' it from the library without the benefit of using a library card (ie spirited it out). I hid it in the garage at home.

Dad found it, did not make much of a fuss and said "We'll go back to the library and i'll let you use my library card to check it out." Which I did.

Eventually thaere was a version of "the Talk" that dad and I had...Dad was awkward, it was uncomfortable to me.....

/Is it too late to learn the way tec did?

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MexicanOnABike

grade 6 or 7.

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snowy

My mom bought me a book when I was 5 called the Human Body, which had very detailed drawings of the entire human body and all of its organ systems, as well as lengthy explanations as to the body's functions. Obviously, this included the reproductive system.

Notably, the book left one key piece of information. Sure, it showed how the sperm fertilized the egg and formed a zygote and so on, but it did not mention just how the sperm got to the egg. So that part I had to ask Mom about.

My 13-year-old babysitter wanted to take me to her health class and show me off in front of the kids because evidently I knew a lot more than her peers, even at 5.

I know when it comes time to raise my own children, I'm certainly not going to shy away from the topic.

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Grasshopper Green

Neither of my parents ever talked to me about sex. My mom's only conversation regarding anything sexual was after I met my first highschool boyfriend...she told me if I got pregnant she wasn't raising the baby. I learned the basic mechanics of sex in my 7th grade Teen Living class and from secret conversations with my girlfriends.

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MexicanOnABike

it's funny how everyone learned about it from books or "the talk". I got it from the internet. or movies that shown a bit too much.

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Midnight

mmm might be amusing to tell so..

I had asked my daughter if she wanted to know anything about where babies come from starting about the time she was in kindergarten. I always got "no thanks".

then they took them in 6th grade on some filed trip regarding that sort of thing and she came home and was like "Oh mom.. you aren't going to believe what they told us today!"

She thought the whole thing was absolutely hilarious and I had to assure her that they were quite right. She was on the phone with her best friend within minutes saying "Ruby! Get this - they were SERIOUS today!"

I "went out to get milk" and drove down the block and parked and laughed until I cried.

Toaster126

Reading everything I could get my hands on, then separating the wheat from the chaff using my own brain... worked pretty well. But then again, I think everyone should get a talk from their parents, and parents who don't talk to their kids about sex or money management are really doing them a disservice.

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Infinite_Loser

I learned 'The facts of life' when I was about eight and walked in on my parents have sex.

You don't realize how hard it is to look your parents in the eyes after seeing them mid-orgasm.

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tjenus

i had it easy, with 2 brothers 5 and 7 years older than me they let me sit in on a porn movie they had gotten there hands on, i think i was 7 years old, never got a talk from any of my parents or step parents, no high school sex ed class at the time ether

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shesus

I dont' remember when I found out. I was fairly young though. My grandfather taped porn over my cartoons. That was my introduction to gay sex. Two men going at it in the back of a pick-up truck was *not* an episode of Heathcliff. Around that same time, I also stumbled across the Hustler and Playboy stash.

My mom quickly tried to do damage control with a book about sex from the library. I remember the book being pastel with watercolor like drawings.

I was pretty shocked and as Sultana said, I swore I'd never do anything like that. It was gross to my little kid brain. But times change...

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hambone

Also don't really remember. I suppose the classes we had in school and through friends I guess. My parents were always very honest and open about it but we never really sat down for a chat or anything.

I do recall visiting my cousins house and him having found a stash of Playboys. Later on I had found the same sort of stash of my Dad's and used to hide a couple under my bed and whatnot.

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Plan9

I "went out to get milk" and drove down the block and parked and laughed until I cried.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that needed mentioned again. Who does that? Who gets that in life?

I mean... my parents tried the talk... but I had no interest until I was driving cars. You got a comedy routine and a chance to "laughed-until-you-cried"?

Kids today. Little buggers. Damn single-digits monsters will be banging each other out like college kids. And drinking Guinness while they do it.

I hope my kids all have smoothspots like me. The "talk" will be about their IRA.

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MSD

I can top that, my dad didn't explain anything to me and my mom not only explained nothing, but confused me more. In addition to the same misconception you had, my mom managed to shelter me from even the knowledge that men were involved in making babies. I just assumed that it was chance. Imagine my confusion when my mom's explanation of premarital sex was limited to "it's a sin to have a baby before you're married." "But what if someone does and she's not married?" "It's a sin" " "

Clare

6 or 7 by some of the older kids at school trying to freak us out

guthmund

No doubt.

I found my dad's Playboys around 9 or 10. Although I recognized the various anatomical differences and instinctually figured out that boobs made me happy, I had no idea the mechanics of sex and such until I was well into my teens. My parents never broached the subject and my friends were just as bumfuzzled as the rest of us.

Thank god, the internet came along and with it informational websites and the proliferation of hardcore porn. It wasn't the greatest of teachers, but at least I understood the general idea and it was a shitload more than I was ever offered by my parents.

Not that they were bad parents, I just think they were so embarassed by the whole thing they preferred to believe that I was a bright boy and probably knew all about it already.

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ssratt

Good way, a little book about my mother gave me (11)
The bad way, My father decided to "teach me" personally at the same time(11+)