A circumcision quesiton: How much time will your kids spend looking at their father's penis?

Question

Many people say they want their kids circumcised so his penis will look the same as his fathers.

I don't know about you guys, but I never spent much time looking at my parents private parts. I only saw them on accident and didn't want to get a good look.

Is there something I am missing?

Or have I just lived a totally sheltered life and in the real world, the whole family sits around and looks at eachother's private parts?

Answer 1

The better question is daddy going to shave to look like son, or are they going to give the baby a haircut and glue it on to look like daddy?

Answer 2

Men who don't want their son to be different from them are men who have not fully faced the trauma of having been circumcised themselves. They will not allow their son to have a foreskin because they never got a chance to have one. They were forced to be circumcised, and it still hurts. They are in denial of the fact that their right to genital integrity was abused. This is a very difficult issue to face no matter what age - boys, teens, older men. How do you cope with the permanent loss of erogenous sensation? Rather than face the hurt and the losses, the father will subject his son the same deal so that now he, too, has no choice.

Men who insist that thier son be circumcised also insist that they themselves are not missing anything and that if anything it is far better to be circumcised than not. Denial can run very deep.

A man who accepts that he got a bad deal by being circumcised will love and accept his son no matter whether he has a foreskin or not. He has accepted the fact that, hey it happened to me, my parents didn't know any better, doctors didn't know any better, but it doesn't have to happen to my son. A man who allows his son to be intact (ie, does not abuse his genital integrity) puts an end to the cycle of pain and abuse.

Answer 3

I think those that tell you that are full of crap! Its a personal preference. It's usually done for hygienic purpose. Who like you say !! looks at their fathers penis to see if they look like him. I was naked with my boys in the bath ,and never ever once had them ask how come you have foreskin, or don't. You can be circumcised and still have a foreskin, as I've had it done twice and you wouldn't know it. The only reason I had the boys done, was because my wife chose to have it done, and I see no reason to have it done other wise. It certainly makes no difference with cleanliness. I had it done because of an injury, and the way they sewed me up after, and still as i said when I'm naked you would not know I've had it done twice. They use to dialate the foreskin when I was a child. I am sure if your child asked when the time came it would be easy to explain. I would opt now to leave it, and have them make their own decision as long as it causes no problem. Good Luck ! You are a very smart young lady. And I guess I'm like you . I must be missing something here. But then I'm a guy and I appreciate what I was given by the Lord! Have a Very Merry Christmas filled with Happiness,Health Wealth, and remember to pray for our troops and light a candle for those who can't be with us .

Answer 4

I think that's one of the stupidest reasons people give to rationalise infant circumcision. Most fathers and sons do not compare and anyway they do not have similar looking penii/penises when the son is still a child. If the child does notice a difference it's rather easy to tell them a simple version of circumcision to explain. Many men who say they want their sons to be like them actually get caught out when they realise they don't know if their own fathers are circumcised or not.

Answer 5

Just because you were is not a good reason to mess up your sons sex life. Circumcision causes a lot lost sensitivity in older age. You might not notice the difference now, but I am sure by the time you are in your forty's you will notice that it doesn't work as well as you like it to. And a lot of guys it barely works at all by the time they are fifty. But if you keep that foreskin that's not as much a problem. I am willing to bet if we quit circumcising our men there would be at least a 50 to 75% drop in the sale of Viagra.

Answer 6

At most the child may see it once in a few months/years, but even if different, that shouldn't matter. If the boy wants to get circumcised, that's his choice which he can make.

I'm against infant circumcision. By leaving your son uncircumcised, if he's not satisfied with it he can always get cut and end up satisfied in the end. One survey found that about half of circumcised guys would have preferred to had made the decision themselves:
http://www.jackinworld.com/qow/q15.html

That may play a part into why circumcision rates have fallen so much. For example, circumcision rates were as high as 90% back in the 1960s and 1970s (that's partly why today's adults are so... brainwashed, I supposed you could say, about thinking that circumcision is better) but they have fallen to as low as 14% in some states. Here are the statistics:
http://www.cirp.org/library/statistics/USA/staterates2004/

The USA is the last developed nation doing it to a large number of newborns without religious or medical needs. (Europeans, Latin Americans, Japanese, and most Australians, Canadians, and Asians don't circumcise):
http://www.circumstitions.com/Maps.html

Christianity doesn't ask for circumcision, either. In fact, sections of the Bible are harsh against circumcision, and the Catholic Church even condemned the surgery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision_in_the_Bible#In_Christianity

So now there are many more uncircumcised boys. They don't get made fun of anymore due to that (I know, I'm one and I'm 18, a pre-med student).

In a medical study, it was found that females are more likely to hit orgasm with an uncircumcised man:
http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/408/60750.html

The lubricated foreskin (on the inside... like your eyelids) slides up and down during sex and masturbation to stimulate the head (which is why you don't hear of uncircumcised guys needing lube to masturbate).
http://www.cirp.org/pages/anat/
http://net.indra.com/~shredder/intact/anatomy/index.html

Studies have found that circumcision reduces sensitivity (this article also mentions how it has lost popularity in the USA in recent times):
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,285532,00.html

And despite being more sensitive, uncircumcised guys still last in the same six minute range (average) that circumcised guys do:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2005.00070.x

Makes masturbation more difficult:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2006.06646.x

Which makes sense, that's how circumcision was promoted in the USA:
http://english.pravda.ru/science/health/27-03-2006/77873-circumcision-0

Increases erectile dysfunction rates:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14979200&dopt=Abstract%7C

If too much skin is removed in circumcision, it can make the penis smaller since the penis needs some skin to expand during an erection:
http://drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=1125
http://www.altermd.com/Penis%20and%20Scrotal%20Surgery/buried_penis.htm

There's pain involved, often why doctors don't want you in the room when it's done:
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9712/23/circumcision.anesthetic/
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1f21e.htm
http://www.cirp.org/library/procedure/plastibell/

Of course, there are other risks associated, but those are typically the ones due to surgery. You can research it more here:
http://shorl.com/deprygyfrykiny
http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/circumcision/against-circumcision.html

PS. As far as cleaning goes, it's really simple. For the first years in life the foreskin doesn't pull back. That prevents stuff like poo/fecal matter from touching the head. Later on all it takes it 5 to 10 seconds to pull the foreskin back and rub the head; it even feels good.
http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/circumcision/protect-uncircson.html

Answer 7

You aren't missing anything. By the time the little guy's penis even remotely resembles his Dad's they won't be going to the bathroom together anymore.

My son is 10 yrs old and not circumcised. He knows that Daddy is circumcised and that his looks a bit different. He is also learning to retract the foreskin to wash, as it just recently started to retract easily. YES I DO have to remind him to do it every day, just like brushing his teeth, that's my job as his mother, among other things.

Answer 8

I agree on the basis that the "To Look Like Dad" reason is a poor excuse to circumsize a baby boy. If there's nothing wrong with your baby son's penis, then why chop part of it off?
My dad's got ginger hair and mine's brown. Doesn't mean I'm going to dye my hair orange to look like him!
(I made that last bit up, but as an example...!)

Answer 9

Y'know - even if they are both circumcised or both uncircumcised, the baby/little boy penis is going to look different from the grown man penis, anyway. At least, I hope so, for mom's sake ;-)

Answer 10

Yep, I never get this either.

Maybe babies should be tattooed and pierced to look like dad, too.

My hubby has bathed with our son maybe twice in 11 years. Both times, it was a shower at the beach sort of setting. A breadwinning dad has few chances to dress and undress in front of his children. It's just the schedule they keep.

Answer 11

Haha! THANK YOU! I needed a good laugh.

Same with the locker room thing. My husband and I talked about this (he's circ'd and our son isn't) and he said that all the boys he knew when he was young would have never admitted to looking at a penis. He also said that everyone kept their underwear on anyway.