My son is 8 and fairly innocent. He’s small for his size and younger than the rest of his classmates. Recently he went for an afternoon play date with two boys, one his age and an 11-year-old brother. I know the mother fairly well (and like her) but only have a passing friendship with the father. As soon as my son came home from their house, he ran to the computer room, locked the door and w...
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My husband and I are progressive and we’ve always lived in a big city, filled with diverse people, racially, sexually, economically, religiously, etc. Because of work, we’ve had to move to a small, conservative Midwestern town. There isn’t a lot of openness when it comes to the LGBT population. We have our suspicions on who might be, but nothing is verified. It is very much ̶...
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My wife and I occasionally video and photograph ourselves in the bedroom. Nothing outrageous. Unfortunately, our 9-year-old daughter accidentally saw some images on my phone. To make matters worse, a friend was with her at the time, but it’s unclear how much she saw. We’ve already talked to our child about violating our privacy with the snooping, but how do we explain what we were doin...
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My daughter is 12. Another mother brought up the idea of introducing the concept of masturbation to our daughters. I am contemplating this but don’t know how I’d bring it up, advise her, etc. For boys, it seems so natural and obvious. Girls have no road map to follow. Any suggestions on how to handle this delicate situation? This is a question near and dear to my heart. I believe very ...
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My 15-year-old son has been in a relationship with a girl the same age for about a year. We like her a lot, and we think their relationship is healthy and loving. They were friends for a long time before they started going out. I have two questions: 1) We think he’s too young to have sex, but we don’t know how to explain that to him and also, without condoning the decision, tell him that if they d...
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We’re expecting a baby boy in a few months and we can’t decide whether to circumcise him. Our religion does not require that we do so, but my husband is circumcised and most of the men we know are. However, I’ve noticed that some of my friends are not circumcising their sons. Are there health reasons we should consider? My husband is concerned that since our son’s penis won’t look like his father’...
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My 10th grade son has a nice group of kids he hangs with—they’re boys and girls, and still pretty innocent. I like them all and know their parents. He wants to have a sleepover with them and swears nothing will happen. I think at this age, this is true, but I’m concerned this becomes a slippery slope and that if I say yes this time, it makes it harder to say no in the future when they&...
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I have a fourth grade boy and it’s only a matter of time before he will find online porn videos. My feeling is that kids exposed to porn video at an early age develop false expectations of what relationships between older people are in reality, and especially what women are like. I’ve been thinking that it might be a good idea to have my husband tuck some Playboy magazines in my son’s room, accomp...
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My third grader came home a few days ago and asked me what a “blow job” was. When I asked her where she heard that, she said that some boys were saying it on the bus. I told her that wasn’t a nice word and that no one should say it. Then I called the school and told them what was going on and suggested they have a monitor on the bus to prevent that kind of language. Kids of all ages are on the bus...
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