Innocence, Nudity and Sex

Why do we, as parents, tell the kids to close their eyes, or even tell them to go upstairs or go to their room when there is a kissing scene or a love scene on the television? I bet most parents were faced with a situation where they switch to a channel and there was a love or kissing scene, and there... was the little boy or girl with mouth agape trying to sink in what was happening to the two smooching fellas on teevee. Or the scene could be that they suddenly appeared and the parents had no time anymore to switch to another channel so that they will not see the love or the kissing scene, but they did see!

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When my son was twelve or maybe younger (I couldn’t exactly recall), I was watching a rated R movie on cable TV downstairs and the leading lady was making love to one of the characters (minus the breast and ‘down under’ exposure). She was like humping and perspiring. Being so engrossed with the movie, I did not notice that my son was already up from his afternoon nap upstairs. He let out a question, “Why is she perspiring?” To my shock I was not able to find the right words to say but managed to reply, “They are making love.” “But why is she perspiring?” came the question again. I switched to another channel and said, “You will come to know that when you cross the bridge (or something to that effect).” He went silently to the dining room and I was left wondering what was going on in his mind.

I actually doubted if I said the right thing but I realized that we parents sometimes overdo things in order to protect our children. Kids just need simple answers. I could have told him, “She is perspiring because of the activity.” Or “Maybe it is ‘hot’.” :-) That could be more comprehensible.

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An officemate once related a story about his nine-year old daughter. His daughter took a bath and when she’s done, she ran from the bathroom naked attempting to cover her butt with her small hands. We were laughing trying to imagine how she looked like while running naked covering her butt with her hands. It was such innocence that she covered her butt instead of her more private part. I could not remember if my officemate succeeded explaining why she had to cover her ‘other’ part instead of her butt.

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One of the stories that had me laughing, too, is about a couple who shares the same room with their one-year-old daughter. They were in the middle of their act of lovemaking when suddenly the daughter woke up, eyes wide staring at them. It was too late to stop the activity because the husband was nearing climax. And while the daughter continued staring at them feeding herself with her bottled milk, and wife equally looking at the little girl whispering to her husband that the baby is wide awake, the husband did not stop to reach his goal. :-P