November 23, 2005--Leave My Peepee Alone!
Call me old fashioned, but I’m glad my parents referred to my penis as my peepee.
Always at or ahead of the cutting edge when it comes to Fashion & Style, the Gray Lady NY Times reports that the most enlightened parents these days much prefer the former to the latter when talking about you know what (see link).
I can understand but still like to think that some things are best left wrapped in innocence. I know, I know, to be anatomically correct both in dolls and language will assure that our little ones grow up without hang-ups and will enjoy a loving, sexually fulfilling life. After all, look at how well their parents are doing, having been brought up in this most healthy way. Don’t we wish the same for children??
And don’t we want them, at the very earliest age, to begin to prepare for entrance to the finest and most exclusive pre-schools and universities? How can we expect our precious ones to pass a nursery school admissions interview if they blurt out during it that they have to go Potty with their Peepee?
And we’re not taking about just using more authentic language for “private parts”; we’re also talking about toddler sex education.
Parents these days are saying they don’t “have the luxury of silence anymore” so even their babies are learning about how babies are made. They do not want to wait until their two-year olds learn about intercourse from TV or some other kid in Gymboree. According to this view, they should learn about “vulvas” while at the same time learning about “ears” and “noses.” There is no “right age” to learn about sex, according to Dr. Justin Richardson, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical School. “If you’re talking about how babies are made, there’s no age at which it is harmful to learn that the penis goes into the vagina.”
If you are a follower of this blog and read Larry the Fag (posted November 12th), you know about my own pathetic introduction to sex and are probably thinking, “I should take anything he says about sex seriously? No way.”
I understand, and I also understand the sense of upset felt by that parent whose son, when he typed “Katrina images” into Goggle, found himself bombarded by pictures that had nothing to do with the hurricane!
Having confessed some of my own hang ups in that story and indicating here how I understand the challenges facing modern parents who want only the best for their children, I still contend that you can do unintentional harm by being too explicit too early. I think there is a “too early.”
I may have been rubbing up against my friends at an early age, but I’m not sure it would have been a good idea for me at, let’s say, five (which today would be “late”) to know any more than I did. Especially about where my peepee would go if I wanted to make a baby. Or just have some fun.
Always at or ahead of the cutting edge when it comes to Fashion & Style, the Gray Lady NY Times reports that the most enlightened parents these days much prefer the former to the latter when talking about you know what (see link).
I can understand but still like to think that some things are best left wrapped in innocence. I know, I know, to be anatomically correct both in dolls and language will assure that our little ones grow up without hang-ups and will enjoy a loving, sexually fulfilling life. After all, look at how well their parents are doing, having been brought up in this most healthy way. Don’t we wish the same for children??
And don’t we want them, at the very earliest age, to begin to prepare for entrance to the finest and most exclusive pre-schools and universities? How can we expect our precious ones to pass a nursery school admissions interview if they blurt out during it that they have to go Potty with their Peepee?
And we’re not taking about just using more authentic language for “private parts”; we’re also talking about toddler sex education.
Parents these days are saying they don’t “have the luxury of silence anymore” so even their babies are learning about how babies are made. They do not want to wait until their two-year olds learn about intercourse from TV or some other kid in Gymboree. According to this view, they should learn about “vulvas” while at the same time learning about “ears” and “noses.” There is no “right age” to learn about sex, according to Dr. Justin Richardson, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical School. “If you’re talking about how babies are made, there’s no age at which it is harmful to learn that the penis goes into the vagina.”
If you are a follower of this blog and read Larry the Fag (posted November 12th), you know about my own pathetic introduction to sex and are probably thinking, “I should take anything he says about sex seriously? No way.”
I understand, and I also understand the sense of upset felt by that parent whose son, when he typed “Katrina images” into Goggle, found himself bombarded by pictures that had nothing to do with the hurricane!
Having confessed some of my own hang ups in that story and indicating here how I understand the challenges facing modern parents who want only the best for their children, I still contend that you can do unintentional harm by being too explicit too early. I think there is a “too early.”
I may have been rubbing up against my friends at an early age, but I’m not sure it would have been a good idea for me at, let’s say, five (which today would be “late”) to know any more than I did. Especially about where my peepee would go if I wanted to make a baby. Or just have some fun.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:24 AM
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