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HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?

To start: no, there are no "trusted male figures" in our lives. My brothers & father are all conservative, and I DO NOT trust them to properly explain things without shame and/or religious context.

My son knows the basics of reproduction, but I've never really explained what's "normal" things for a teenage boy to go through.. mainly because I don't know!

I've definitely put it off, so he's almost 14 and is much more physically mature than most of his peers (he's got hair in places, shaves his face regularly, etc.).. but I'm embarrassed to admit that I know next to nothing about anything else..

Could y'all help me out? What did you go through that he should know about? What should I know about?

Many thanks to anyone who can help. Please don't be unkind. Much appreciated.

EDIT: Thank you so much for all the advice so far!! Please keep it up!!

My son & I have very open communication & a very good relationship.

121 comments
  • Male puberty happens a bit later than female puberty; at almost 14 he's either in the thick of it or just about done.

    I don't think male puberty is quite as "what the Lovecraftian fuck is happening to me right now" as female puberty. His voice either has or will drop, this isn't physically painful but it's not fun how people react to it sometimes.

    He is going to GROW. When I was 15 I outgrew a pair of shoes overnight. Came home from school one day, took my shoes off, went to bed. Woke up the next morning, those same shoes didn't fit. In the next couple years he's probably going to have some joint or bone aches just from growing so much. My parents fed me Tylenol which did basically nothing, I'm not convinced Tylenol works. It'll slow down by the time he's out of high school but where girls are pretty much at adult size at 18 boys will keep growing a bit into their early 20s.

    He's gonna get stronger. Sometimes it's going to sneak up on him; prepare for the occasional moments of didn't know his own strength style clumsiness.

    Physical activity is a good idea; sports, marching band, shop class, if you can get him up and moving during the day and not packed into a classroom it'll be good for his brain. Boys don't really do well sitting in a classroom all day.

    For the above three reasons he is going to have a VORACIOUS appetite. I ate 5,000 calories a day and struggled to gain weight in high school. Let the kid eat. A hungry teen is an angry teen. Somewhere around 19 or 20, either in college or in the get a job part of life, that growth spurt is tapering off and there's less physical activity inherent in life, so the need for calories is going to decrease but his ordering habits won't. 19 years old is about time to start ordering medium combo meals.

    You can expect a certain amount of teenage moodiness; his brain is rewiring itself. He'll have feelings. Society isn't okay with this. He'll learn how to express nothing but anger or amusement. This is ultimately for the best; once he's an adult he will be expected to do two things: Work and die. Having feelings is accomplishing neither of those so he is expected to...never do that. Some people will ask him for displays of emotions; he will quickly learn that they are not interested in his actual feelings because those would require, like, dealing with or whatever. They want to see an impromptu rom-com performance.

    Unexplained genital pain is never normal in males; "it hurts, and it has hurt for awhile now" is reason to see a doctor.

  • What did you go through that he should know about? What should I know about?

    As a male, not much really happens, other than feeling grumpy as hell pretty much all the time, an undeserved sense of superiority after realizing how logic works, and a fucking intense sex drive. I cannot stress the last part enough, teenage boys are a horny bunch and, thanks to the internet, will probably masturbate multiple times a day. What you should tell him, and hope it enters his brain, is that the more porn he consumes, the less likely he'll be to feel satisfied with actual sex, which can lead to disappointing relationships later on.

    Another couple of comments said to "knock before entering his room". If you want to "assert authority", open without knocking and, if you catch him in the act, just nonchalantly tell him to "do it elsewhere and clean up properly" - if anything, teach him to wipe it dry and don't use water to clean up. He will feel ashamed from being caught, but if you, as his mother, treats it as something natural and expected, hopefully he'll get the right idea that, yes, that is something to be done in privacy, but not necessarily something to feel ashamed of.

    Talk about sex. Tell him that he must wear a condom when he does it and to keep a bottle of lube to help (water based lube only, oils will wreck condoms)

    Lastly, if he ever brings a girlfriend home, tell her to only do it with a condom and to not accept any of his possible excuses to not use one.

  • I think the two big things I have to add are:

    1. Don't let the church educate your son on these things.
    2. Don't say nothing.

    If you're unsure about talking to them about these things yourself, seek out a man you trust, talk to them about it and make sure your values align, and then talk to your son about them together.

      1. Why do you think I don't know anything? Lol So that's not a worry.
      2. That's what I'm trying to fix.

      Unfortunately, I do not have any close male friends, so I may need to address things myself.

      • Ah, didn't mean for my advice to seem disparaging in anyway, so I apologize if that seemed the tone of it.

        Luckily, as others have mentioned on the thread, there's a ton of great resources online to help you out. You're going to do great, and when your son is older, he'll be grateful that you took the time.

  • Honestly, the majority of key points to talk about can be found online from respectable sources (for example, this article from Johns Hopkins, though there are many others). There is a better than even chance he has shady looked up the "Is this normal" stuff himself if he has normal internet access.

    From a social standpoint it's going to be different for everyone, teenage years are hard and kids are often cruel. I'd advise to just be there for him on this front, but don't be pushy. He is going to be moody, lash out sometimes, and act differently. That is all normal. He is going to want to push boundaries and get in trouble (rather do things that will get him in trouble, most folks don't actually want to get in trouble). Give him safe room to explore who he is and to try new things without letting him fall down too hard.

    Lastly, you say there are no trusted male figures in your life, but that doesn't have to be family. Good friends can also fill that space. I have to imagine there is some guy in your life that could have heart to heart, even just with you to then talk to your son. It's worth trying to broaden your expectation of what a trusted male figure is perhaps.

  • Been thinking a lot about this post and tried to come up with some things that weren’t already mentioned. Sorry for writing a book.

    This was mentioned once but you really have to talk to him about porn. He can literally find it on the same device he calls you on. It’s not real life but he might not know that yet or understand why. I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t allow it, just that he absolutely has already encountered it and it’s likely already shaping what he finds desirable without him knowing it. (I like porn. I think it’s mostly a good thing. I do not miss trying to figure wtf was real vs what someone’s older brother made up to mess with me.)

    I think lots of people have focused on sex and sexuality (for obvious reasons) but this is a moment where his relationships with friends and potential romantic interests are going to begin changing. It might be worth asking him what he needs from those different groups in his life. My friends weren’t supportive of me having a girlfriend at 14 cause they didn’t like her and it basically caused me to dig my heels in and hold onto that relationship longer than I should have.

    I’m also surprised that more people didn’t mention talking with him about drinking and drugs. I don’t have any advice on what to say there. I just wish I hadn’t had to figure that stuff out totally on my own.

    Ultimately, I’m glad to hear that you and your son have a good relationship where you can talk about things. The things he needs to talk with you about will change but there’s no substitute for knowing that you care.

    EDIT: if you were specifically looking for the mechanics of how to hide a boner, you swing it around to 12 o’clock, tuck it up behind the waistband of the pants, and pull the boxers over it. Going down into the pants will make it more visible.

  • As a father, I didn’t even know what to do or expect, we’re all messy, gross, and dumb at that age. The path I chose, was if they knew enough to ask a question, it was time for a discussion. Just pay attention, offer a safe environment for questions and be honest. Most of what they need to learn the world with teach them. Be there to fact check and maybe even learn together. Last tip… WE made biology gross and taboo, WE can make it less so for our kids.

  • Visit your local library for resources on sexual health and wellness! It's good for you to know too. Everyone should know about the reproductive system, anatomy, STDs, how to prevent them, and what vaccines and medicines can treat or prevent STDs (For example, PrEP pills can make you nearly immune to HIV).

    Fwiw, it is probably good to explain sexuality too. Or at least have books with solid sections that explain it. I always crushed on and dated girls, but then started getting nervous when I started finding boys cute too. It added a great deal of stress to my daily life. My parents thought I was straight, then kinda mangled it when I came out the first time.

    There's no instruction manual for raising kids, but like...you can definitely have the knowledge ready so that you aren't caught off guard :)

  • He probably has more of a clue about what happens with dudes than with women. Which you could tell him about.

    Oh, one thing. If he's circumcised he probably uses some kind of lube to masturbate. It might not be condom compatible though. So if he has sex and they use lube because they've heard it hurts less then they could break the condom. That's not commonly discussed. I don't think you have to discuss how silicone lubes aren't great with sex toys.

    Then you should probably talk to him about hurting during sex. Foreplay should be nice enough that you could do it all the way to orgasm. Whether it's a vagina or a butthole it shouldn't hurt by the time you put an erect penis in there. Taylor Tomlinson has a bit about how growing up Christian was good for her sex life because it meant she did everything up to "the deed". And porn, as others have mentioned, has a tendency to skip those bits. And kissing is also foreplay!

    Speaking of comedy, Jerry Seinfeld did a bit about him watching a laundry commercial for a product that could also remove blood. And he jokes about how he isn't a serial killer so why would he need that. So tell your son a bit about sanitary bins, pads that don't always get everything while you are sleeping, stuff like that. It's not scary and he shouldn't be Menstrual Guy ally supreme but he needs to be told things he can't experience himself.

  • I'd tell him his number one goal should not be to get his rocks off. He should focus solely on being friends with lots of different girls. Everyone eventually learns sex. It takes much longer to meet someone you just get along with and could become your ride or die. Male/female relationships come in all varieties. Learn them all.

  • First things first, I'd suggest looking into Big Brothers, Big Sisters if you're in America. I've been a part of their program and it's a great organization dedicated to helping kids exactly like this

    OK, onto real advice: it sounds like you're a woman and one of the things you need to address early with young men is respect. He will become significantly stronger than you very soon. He will have a ton of hormones pumping through his body. He is going to become dangerous to himself and others. He will be curious about how strong he is. You have to make sure he explores that safety. This is something all men go through and it's important to have a good foundation or he can start spiraling down bad paths. You need to police his internet usage, his friends, and his role models or he could very easily start sliding into anti-women and abusive views

    If he's not enrolled in any sort of physical activity I would encourage you to find one. He's going to have basically unlimited energy and channeling that into sports is usually better than the alternatives. That's also tricky because you need to pay attention to the leadership of those activities to ensure that they are good influences

    Now the fun stuff: he is going to be hungry for the next 5 years. If you haven't grown up with boys it's hard to understand but he can eat 6000 calories in a day and barely notice. My family used to order 2 pizzas when I was a teen, I would eat an entire one and they would eat the other. I'm not exaggerating when I say my average food in a day was a full continental breakfast, 2 deli sandwiches, chips, a dessert and a soda for lunch, an after school snack (usually leftovers), a large dinner, and dessert. I'm not a fat guy, nor was I in school. You will likely think at some point "he can't possibly be eating that much food" and I assure you that he can

    Ultimately what is important is that you have to build a good moral foundation for him. You will lose the ability to control him and when that happens all of the work you've done raising him will reflect in the way he acts

  • For real, go to a library and ask a librarian for help.

    They'll have various books aimed at different levels of maturity and reading levels. Get a book, read it yourself, then ask him to read it and talk about what you learned.

  • There is a wealth of resources regarding sexuality and thematics for adolescents in general available here: https://www.youmo.se/en/

    also, Big Mough comes recommended by the city of reykjavik, which has lots of stuff regarding sexuality and gender issues, but not all in english.

    i want to emphasise training how to use a condom, finding out the correct size is something that's on his to do list. Proper hygiene is also learned (my parents didn't give a shit and it caused me problems far longer than necessary) - tell him if he needs to shower, body odor changes fast during puberty, and it's easy to be nose-blind to your own smell.

    I saw someone recommend giving a gift card for a sex toy - i think that's a good idea, the sex drive in puberty was constant and to be honest at times annoying and distracting,

  • Besides all the stuff related to sex that many people have already written down here:

    1. That it is normal to have overwhelming emotions at this age. It's fine if he gets angry, or sad or whatever. Find an outlet for that emotion.
    2. He is gonna get a long stronger. It is important to approach this with sensibility: saying stuff like "strong men are dangerous" or "men are strong and women are weak" etc can actively harm young men's mental health. I'm sure there are good resources for this online as well, though I'm not sure where. He needs to realize that he will need to control how much force he puts into things much more than as a child, but at the same time that people are not afraid of him and should not be.
121 comments