The FCC thread has inspired me to make a thread that I've been tempting to make for quite some time.

There are subjects that are various degrees of taboo in society, and the big reason always seems to be, in the immortal words of Helen Lovejoy, "Won't somebody please think of the children?"

Let's start off with swear words. How are children going to be hurt by saying those words? I'm not talking about ones that can be used as derogatory against certain groups of people. Hell, you could even make a small case for controlling blasphemy (goddamnit, Jesus Christ, etc.) But fuck, shit, etc., I could care less if anyone said them.

Sex topics are the other one, of course. Were kids REALLY devastated by an extra flab of flesh at the Super Bowl? Nudity in general is taken way too seriously. Also, what's wrong with giving a simplistic view of the birds and the bees? There's no reason to show kids crazy hardcore junk, but then again, many if not most adults don't want to see it either. Kids know the basics of violence, or defecation, at an early age, what's wrong with the basics of sex?

*waits for the inevitable "Wait until you have kids" post*

I cussed at my friend's house. Their two-year-old called me on it, and I had to go sit in the corner until I apologized.

Actually, as my wife has been pointing out since she's pregnant, I cuss in front of kids a LOT! I must be the censor-happy parent's nightmare.

Of course, the friends above deal with my cussing and cussing on TV all the time. The kid hears it and announces that that was a bad word, and either I apologize or they decided that when the meet the person from TV, he or she will have to apologize for using adult words.

I would disagree that kids know the basics of sex and so why not show it to them or say words that depict it? (is that what you're arguing?)

kids do not know the basics of sex. There is no intrinsic information that they are born with, they only know as much as they are taught, or discover on their own.

Each parent has their own comfort level with how much their child is exposed to.

I personally believe that children are too over-sexed in our society(little girls wearing thongs and sweatsuits with "juicy" on the butt and makeup)

or even worse.. http://www.pimpfants.com/Results.asp?category=4

my mommy's a MILF? why should that be on a baby's "wife beater"?????

anyway, back to the original question.

My belief is that sex, and information about it, should not be forced on children, nor should information be withheld. I think children should be allowed to grow at thier own pace and as they have curiosities or questions, they should be answered honestly and straightforwardly.

letting them watch sex scenes in movies or hearing words with out definitions won't do anything to help them out if they aren't explained in the proper context in the words and emotions that kids can understand, so why expose them to it?

Not to mention that you don't want your kid outkast because they're at school saying "blow job" or the like.

Let kids be kids. They grow up fast enough.

i'm totally with you, especially the sex part

seriously, kids need to have the basis, or they are going to fill in the blanks with paris hilton and other misinformed sources. it is better for children to see boobs and be comfortable with them than to create an environment where nakedness is taboo, or even worse, create an environment where nakedness is always related to sex.

that shit is confusing, it sends mixed messages, and creates a situation where children go exploring sexuality at a level that is way over their heads.

playing doctor is something that can be eaily talked about and not freaked out about. but the over-sexed imagery of commercials, daytime TV, and even plain old magazines is more difficult to explain.

then you have 8 year old girls wanting to dress sexy and thinking that hip thrusting is actually dancing.

then you have dateline rounding up the predators.

This doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your post. I mean, these appear to be made for kids w/o language skills. It's just a joke between adults.

I saw a baby shirt that says, "I'm going to get hammered on prom night." The baby doesn't know what it says and will have outgrown it years before he or she can read it.

Sex is one thing and it should be handled with a certain tact. Cuss words, four letter words, swear words, or whatever you want to call them are not an issue in my mind. Violence, as in blood and gore, is another issue that I'm not sure about.

No. I agree with your next paragraph:





100% agree with this.



Because they'll face it anyway. And like you said, if they face it in an instance where the parents have an opportunity to explain, won't they be better prepared for the future?



There's a bit of theoretical in this thread, no doubt. In the real world, I'd teach that when conversing with others, there are times where you must be considerate of other people's beliefs (which goes for everything, not just sex).

Ooh, I forgot about that good point. Why must nakedness always be attached to sex so often?

Okay, but what about the older siblings or kids in public who DO have language/reading skills. Putting this wear on babies, makes those older kids think it is "child appropriate" no?

I guess in my opinion it's still a way of oversexing our kids, even if they aren't affected by it on an individual basis, as a whole it's just one step closer to the sociatal gutter. I think it's sad that society thinks it's okay to use our children as ACCESSORIES or joke-machines.

WTF????

See also: MAXI-MAN!!!

because american adults can't separate out regular naked from sexual naked. and then american media uses that to sell shit. so it is in capitalism's best interest to maintain the pre-teen maturity level that american adults have about nakedness.

dude, you're about to hit 18,000 posts.

1)They'll face a lot of things eventually "anyway". HAVING sex, getting their heart broken, phyical injury, being offered (or trying) drugs and alcohol, seeing a dead person, having children of their own, losing a loved one, dying themselves.

And with each of these things we "take it as it comes", we don't spend time harping on it and "preparing them" for it, we don't watch movies of what it's like to see a dead person, or what it feels like when you have surgery, or what it might feel like to die.

we discuss things like drugs and sex and why to avoid risky behaviors in simple, child-oriented, child-language so they can understand it and have some knowledge of it, but they dont' need to know every single in-and-out (pardon the pun) of sex, or of drugs or anything else. The concept, yes, the nitty gritty? no.

I don't see the rationale behind making sex-related entertainment more common or exposing it to them at a young age because "it will happen eventually".

I also agree with other posters that nudity does not equal sex. Things like the janet jackson mishap would totally not bother me, if my kids were watching I'd say. " Was that supposed to happen? oh, how embarassing for her if it wasn't"

nuff'said.

2) as far as slang words and cuss words. I do cuss in front of my kids. More than I think I should. They do not (usually) cuss (sometimes the 3 yo does as he still doesn't entirely understand).

However, I don't and wont' teach them sex-slang words. I hope to keep an open enough dialoge and a low-key approach to sex that if they are curious about a word they hear from a friend they can ask me and I will tell them what it means, but I'm not going to provide them with the slang. I don't see the point of that.

Kids should be kids should be kids should be kids. Not mini adults.

Who is the State of North Carolina protecting by determining that THIS is too risque a label to allow this beer to be sold in North Carolina?



Fuckin' shit!!! IT'S A BEER, YOU FUCKERS!

I'm curious as to how far apart we are in disagreement here--it might not be that much. I'm not really advocating a structured preparation at an early age. However, kids ask all kinds of questions, and when we do, we should take it as comes, like you said.

Where do you think the line should be drawn with a concept? Is there any problem with simply saying one organ goes in another? Let's see if we can close a gap here.

I still microbrew labels.

i don't think you 2 disagree at all.