How did your parents address the issue of sexuality when you were growing up?

No one ever mentioned anything to me about masturbation as I grew up. I had things come up when I was younger that involved sex, which I'm not going to talk about, but masturbation never came up.

I never even tried to masturbate until I was around 16. I never experimented when I was young, because I was too in my own little world and it definitely didn't involve touching myself..

Masturbation wasn't ever addressed. They went with the don't ask don't tell mentality. Sex however was a little harder to avoid. They never 'had the talk' with me but when they found a condom it was already out there. From that point it was more of a 'hey be careful'. That was about it.

I grew up on a farm with hippie parents. So sex was everywhere. At the dinner table, we talked about which animals were in heat and which ones needed to be bred. There were books like The Joy of Sex all over the house. It was humiliating when friends came over, but in hindsight, I'm so glad I was raised like that. It taught me that sex is normal, natural and enjoyable and certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Of course, now my parents probably regret all of that, considering how open I am about my sexuality now. Hehe.

I have always been very sexual. I use to get in trouble at preschool for playing with myself at nap time. I'd rub myself on my mat because it felt good. I got in trouble everyday and they'd call my Mom. My parents tried to tell me it was bad to do in public. They tried to bribe me into not doing it around other people. I remember getting a new PawPaw Bears VHS after I didn't get caught doing it for a month.

I got a lot of sex talks as a kid. When I was 5 I demanded a boy show me his peepee thing on the playground. My stupid friend told on me. I got in big trouble at school.

My parents knew I was having sex at 15. We always pretended I wasn't sexually active. I pretend they don't still have sex. It works for us.

I find it mildly amusing that a significant percentage of us had our parents either avoid the subject, or implement the 'don't ask don't tell' policy. I wonder if this in any way effected our sexual lives as adults. Perhaps some of us wouldn't be as curious, or adventurous, had the subject received more attention when we were young. Just my 2 cents.

I got the basic reproductive information, with nothing about safety or birth control, and the dire yet vague warning implying that my parents wouldn't love me any more if I ever had sex. This was at age 8. A few years later, I was told the tale of the girl rumored to own a vibrator or dildo of some kind, and how everyone at her high school knew all about it, and never spoke to her again. In this lovely story, masturbation was obviously something girls only did to practice for boys, and it proved they were slutty, and it was dangerous to even speak to a slut. Those were the only two times my parents ever mentioned sex to me at all before I was 18, and since then, it's only mentioned in the context of how offensive it is to see so much sex on television, with sex defined pretty loosely. For example, Shakira's ridiculously tame performance on Dancing With the Stars a week or two ago.

I didnt want to talk about it with my parents at all, but they did. What I learned was done on my own.

My parents would have been as open as I was curious, but I was sexually active (and menstruating) before they ever thought about giving me the talk about the "birds and the bees" or how my body works, etc. I didn't tell my mother I was sexually active until about 3 years after that.

Most of what I knew I had learned in school or online or through friends. Or through books. (I was always in the bookstore. I would cut school to go hide in the rows at Barnes & Noble to read.) I was the first of my friends to lose my virginity and so for me I kept quiet about it for years afterwards. I wasn't ashamed, because it was with someone I truly loved, but I felt like if I told I would be the odd one out.

I was very hyper-sexual in my teenage years (11-19) due to reasons that I won't go into, but my parents knew that whatever it is that I was up to, I was being safe and responsible about it.

My dad never talked about sex. He never talked about periods. If my mom and I used pads or tampons, we had to wrap them up and bury them under everything else in the trash can. If my mom had to buy pads, she couldn't call them that. She had to call them "feminine products." She couldn't even call toilet paper toilet paper! She had to call it "bathroom tissue" or something. He was always so squeamish and acted like no one had bodily functions. Was pretty confusing for me. And irritates me still.

My mom never brought up sexual things unless I asked, which was fine. She did ask me once when I was 11 or 12 if I had been masturbating. I was ashamed but told her yes. I had been having an allergic reaction down there to some fabric softener and thought it was from masturbating. I didn't know much of anything. She told me it's okay, everyone has done it, but that it was wrong and I shouldn't do it. She's a devout christian.

She later told me that I should not have sex until marriage, masturbation was a sin, etc. She cried when she found out I wasn't a virgin anymore at 18. When I told her I was going to move in with my boyfriend, she was furious. She talked me into marrying him instead of just living with him. Didn't want us living in sin. And now, four years later, I'm divorced and living with my new boyfriend and she doesn't act like she cares at all. Once I was married, she kinda acted like I was finally an adult. She still doesn't condone me living with a guy, but she doesn't openly rage about it.

And now we openly talk about sex toys. Haha. She knows my boyfriend and I have sex all the time, use toys, etc. It's so weird how things change.

I found out about the technical aspects on my own as a toddler when I learned to turn the channel from Sesame Street to Discovery and "The Miracle of Life" was on, and surprised my mother at dinner one night by regaling the story of how babies come to be. This is the story she still tells to this day.

As far as the "when you have sexual feelings" talk, I never actually got that from either parent. My mother gave me a brief "I didn't wait for marriage, but I wish you would" speech, but eventually in high school she found out I was active and just kind of didn't mention it anymore. My father, well, I'm married four and a half years with a son, and I have this distinct feeling he still "thinks" I'm a virgin.

Masturbation was never discussed, even in my sex ed classes, and honestly I never would have even though to do it until a guy mentioned it to me and my then-boyfriend in a crude sort of fashion in the seventh grade at a dance.

Mom gave me the birds and bees... then avoided the remainder of the subject... then had a "don't ask don't tell" approach to my own sexuality.

Catholic. You know the rest. Haha :]

My mom avoided it for the most part. And my dad had a weird approach. He was my main influence as I lived with him after my parents split up. He was more of a "don't get pregrenant or it will ruin your life" and 'Hey did you know that females orgasm is 90% mental and 10% physical and men are the complete opposite" <-- I heard that one when I was in 8th grade... Ummm yeah lol

They must have avoided it, I do not remember any conversations about sex, masterbation or even anatomy or physiology. Playboy and Penthouse were my text books.....Talk about a screwed-up corriculium.

My Parents were super awesome about everything when i was growing up, only my dad was easier to talk to than my mom.

My parents were both incredibly uncomfortable talking about anything sexual. I only received the most minimal discussion of menstruation when I was ten. At some point before that I read the word and asked my dad what it meant. He started squirming in his seat and just said "Something you'll be doing when you're older." End of discussion.

My mother was no better. I concluded from her cryptic answers to my questions about where babies come out when they're born that they erupted from your abdomen like in the movie Aliens.

This prudishness did not rub off on me. My son and I talk openly about every little detail, except my own sex life, about which he doesn't want to know.

My mother talked to me about sex AFTER I got pregnant. The school was informative but unhelpful.

My parents didn't really discuss anything with me. I took sex ed in school and that was pretty much all I got.

They didn't. It wasn't addressed at all, not even once. How did they expect me to learn everything??? School, I suppose. Lucky for me, I've been an avid fanfiction reader since age 12.

My Father had porn under his bed, but nothing was ever said tome about sex. I guess they figured that I'd learn everything I needed to know at church. O.o

My parents didn't really say anything about sex. Mom would have been the one if anyone, but was too shy to even talk about puberty. There were vague warnings, sharp exchanges when my sisters came home late. I think she mostly assumed school taught us the details we needed. She didn't get far in school and probably thought they educated us well.

4, or 5th grade had a fun puberty week, I recall a lot from that. Later sex ed was not lacking in information, but the delivery was horribly boring and of course, reproduction was a main focus--which felt irrelevant to me from early on. Later, I forged Mom's signature to get out, Mom might have found out. She probably also knew that I was absorbing EVERYTHING I could. Her magazines, my sisters', romance novels, encyclopedias, Clan of the Freaking Cave Bear in 4th grade, and eventually, we had the internet. And my friends were nerds and mostly didn't think much about sex until late in their teens and early 20s, so I didn't hear much of urban legends. Some friends learned a bit about sex from their parents, but I don't feel they were better off than me.

At 17, when I was still a virgin, I knew more than experienced acquaintances did. I've only had one sex partner since, never been accidentally pregnant, have caught no STDs. I think I'm doing well despite my family's "failure to communicate".

I doubt I will have children, but if I did, I think I would be a little more open than my parents. I would keep lots of good books around for naturally curious minds and maybe assign a somewhat older relative I trust to be their more "removed" go to for wisdom. I don't think it's wrong to not be able to talk to one's child about sexuality as easily as one discusses homework. But I think one must make an effort to understand where their child's development is, they should get to know their children. Which is probably easier said than done. Or maybe not. My mom at least was often home and always had a basic idea of what was going on with me. My parents probably didn't suspect some of my adventures, but I think they mostly knew me well. The leash was shortened when they thought it needed to be. Haha, and they gave my boyfriends mild interrogations.

I feel like I grew up with my own sort of sexuality. My parents didn't structure it for me. Because it was a taboo topic, sex retains a wickedness, but that's the way I like it. Some of my beliefs relating to sexuality probably wouldn't sit well with my parents, but that's OK. It isn't their business.

The method my parents used is not a one-size-fits-all method. It would be disastrous for some. But not all.

They never talked about it

I'm going to hell just for even thinking about it. My parents were kinda strict.

My parents knew I was sexually active. They never told me anything or tried to teach me about it. But, I do have to say that my Daddy took me to the health unit and put me on birth control. So he did his job there, lol.