did your parents tell you about the birds and the bees or did you learn for yourself?

Answer 1

LOL. I'm still waiting for my mother to tell me......she always said "I'll tell you when you're old enough to know" whenever I asked questions she didn't want to answer! I'm still waiting! She couldn't bring herself to tell me about periods either and when mine started when I was 11yrs of age she thrust a medical journal on my lap and said "Read that!" No, I definately had to learn the hard way. Tc also had to learn for himself. The problem for us was that parents didn't talk about that sort of thing. We made a conscious effort with our kids and if they were old enough to ask the question they were old enough to know the answer....we took into account their ages at the time and told them enough without scaring them. Our 17yr old daughter was 8yrs of age when we told her about the birds and the bees due to her, then 15yr old, sister being pregnant. She had asked her sister how the baby had got into her tummy and her sister didn't want to tell her. lol. She was quite matter-of-fact about it but she made us laugh when she turned to her sister and said "Did YOU know that!!"
ps...yes our other daughter DID know that!

Answer 2

My parents? Are you kidding? LOL. I remember finding a
medical book in a storage cupboard at home,and it had some info on the reproductive system and some other related
subjects (ahem). Well instead of allowing me to read it, I
found it missing when I went back to read more. I knew it be-
longed to my mother, so I'd put it back each time I was done
reading. I never said a word to her about the book, or that it
came up missing. I guess she wanted to keep me naive for
as long as possible?
But little did she know, that one day in school, our class in
Home Ec. had to sit and watch a Disney cartoon film about
women and the reproduction system and how babies are
made. So I did learn about everything clinical in an easier to
understand form. By 7th grade kids were already telling dirty
jokes, which I still didn't have an understanding of. I still re-
member the first joke I heard, about a bull and the punch line.
Too bad I can't remember how the joke went. LOL. I just
remember it had something to do with a farmer trying to keep
a bull away from his cow. The kids really laughed hard on
that one. And I laughed along with them. Not really knowing
what the heck was going on LOL. So little by little I pieced
the technical stuff together and got the gist of things. Back
when I grew up, you didn't discuss things with your parents
like that. I don't know who was supposed to teach us. Mine
never did. I would probably have just died, had mom tried.
But actually, I learned later in life, she really didn't know alot
herself LOL. And yet, she did have three children. I guess
most women, just followed the natural order of things back
then.

Answer 3

My mom was quite shy and I am sure she didn't know how to approach it. I had a girlfriend who babysat for a doctor, in the 6th or 7th grade I think, we were about 12. I helped her baby sit sometimes, and we went thru the doctor's medical books and learned everything we wanted to know, and then some!

We were pretty smug because we knew the REAL stuff. But we did learn it right.

After that, I learned a lot more first hand, by observation, growing up on a farm, I realized what I was looking at when I saw the bull in the field with the cows!

Answer 4

My parents told me absolutely nothing about the birds and bees. I wish that they would have, as it would have saved me alot of bad decisions, and critical mistakes in my earlier years. I DID learn I would not make the same mistake with my daughter, and she in turn, returned the favor with my 2 grandaughters. I feel that education in regards to the "Birds and Bees" definitely needs to be injected with a strong dose of moral standards, which seems to be lacking not only in this generation, but many previous.

Answer 5

I too had a combination of sources. The '4th grade health talk', a booklet from our family doctor when I was about 10 years old. Books I found while babysitting...;).

One of my fondest memories is the time both my parents sat me down for 'the talk'. I was 12 years old, developing rapidly, and the older boys had started to come around the house. My parents discussed values and morals, and their belief that sex was for marriage....but they also told me about protection. My dad started telling me about 'condoms'.....he asked if I knew what they were. I thought for a minute "condoms, condoms?" Then I said "Oh, you mean rubbers!" The shocked look on my parents' faces is still vivid in my mind. When they asked how I knew about them, I told them about the time my girlfriends and I bought some and used them as water balloons. I think my parents were relieved. One thing my dad told me during this talk stuck with me......there is no way to prevent getting pregnant or a disease that is 100%, except not having any sex. "Don't do it unless you are prepared to have that man in your life forever." The older I got, the wiser that advice seemed to me. That talk happened nearly 40 years ago, I was very blessed to have parents who were able to talk to me together.

Answer 6

I went to the library and read up on the subject, the activities of our natural friends has always been a passion for me and my parents had no need to instruct me on this fascinating area. The arrival of my own children came of course as no surprise but how the wife always got to the gooseberry bushes before me is a complete mystery.perhaps her friend the milkman helped.

Answer 7

I read a lot as a kid and learned from novels first.

Later I learned the more scientific stuff from medical books and dictionaries.

By the time my mom tried to tell me about it I'd known a lot for years, and in some ways probably knew more than her.

Answer 8

I saw the birds and bees out romping one day and then I knew.

Answer 9

When I was nearly 12 my mom gave me one of those books, told me to read it and ask if I had questions. She wasn't real comfortable answering questions. I learned more from the health classes at school.

Answer 10

A little bit of both... my parents gave me the watered down version but I learned all the cool tricks on my own... LOL