parents

The first sexual thing I can remember happened at about age 9. I had left my bed, probably to get a glass of water, and on my way to the kitchen I saw that the lounge-room light was on. I went down the hall, and at the door I saw my father lying on the couch with his clothing pushed down to his knees and up to his chest. My mother was kneeling down beside the couch with my father's penis in her mouth. I watched for only 5 or 10 seconds before my mother realized I was there and sprang up, alerting my father, who also sprang up and started to adjust his clothing.

I've just finished studying at theological college. I found your web site by accident a couple of months ago and I feel like I've come home. At last I've found somewhere where I can be frank and admit to masturbating, and where others are frank enough to admit to it, too. I was also very interested in the recent entry on Catholic masturbation guilt, as I had a similar experience myself. I was fairly carefree about masturbation as a teenager. My mother gave me a "talk" when I was 13. She told me that now I was growing up and I might find that I sometimes "wet myself" in bed.

As an adult male, I'd like to say a few things to those boys and/or young men who struggle and question. As males, masturbation is completely natural and normal. Yes, often "religion" teaches against it; our parents also ignore it. Guys, the fact is that every parent of every boy of a certain age has wondered what was taking him so long in the bathroom. They both know, especially Dad. They probably don't say anything because their son growing up, in the throes of sexual development, and that makes parents uncomfortable. How soon we older people forget.