Saw a comic recently about this topic and got me thinking. I know what "the talk" is about since it appears in so many media but I don't ever recall having such an experience personally. Did you? What was it like?
I was a late 80s kid, just for context. As far as my experience goes, my parents were very open about sex as a natural process for reproduction. They answered openly any questions I had whenever I had them, keeping to the bare minimum necessary but never avoiding the topic- also never using metaphors as a substitute for plain facts ie. "the birds and the bees".
So at about age 5 or so I was already aware about how reproduction worked on animals, us humans included. As I kept growing up of course I kept connecting the dots on any social aspects of sex and relationships (ie that is supposed to be pleasant, that people do it even if they're not planning to have babies, etc) but I never had a moment of shocking realization regarding sex. I often found it stupid how some of my classmates would giggle or lower their voice when talking about anything sexual like, well, like it's a taboo. And I was often disappointed at how much of what my classmates knew wasn't exactly true, which at the time I chalked to their stupidity, although obviously it wasn't their fault. They were misinformed.
By the time kids got to sex ed in highschool they already had their facts pretty much right though, fortunately.
So I'm curious about your experiences about this while growing up. Was yours similar to mine or did you sit through some awkward conversations? How did you feel about it all?
Both constantly and never. I was born to teen parents, so as far back as I can remember, every other day, my Dad would constantly say "Whatever you do, don't get her pregnant." Even when I was far too young to understand what pregnant or sex was.
But the closest thing I got to "the talk" was when I was 17 and he randomly barges into the living, throws a pack of condoms at me, says "wrap your schlong" and then keeps walking to his bedroom.
Later that night I told him that A) I wasn't having sex B) didn't plan on it and C) that I wasn't even sure what to do with a condom or how throwing one at me was helpful. He shrugged "Sorry I don't have ace parenting skills or whatever" and that was the end of it.
I thought I learned how to have sex by watching porn, but... obviously that wasn't true so I had to be taught everything by partners. Including extremely basic things like what semen, periods or orgasms were.
Thanks Dad...