My son and I have a pretty good relationship. A little over a year ago, he came to me and proudly announced that he had pubic hair. I was at a loss for words and all I could muster was, “That’s awesome… thanks for letting me know!” Thankfully, my idiotic response didn’t seem to affect our relationship.

He doesn’t really have any positive male role models in his life. I’m more than happy to take on the responsibility of guiding him through this journey but have no idea how to go about doing it.

Some things I think I should touch on are the changes taking place in his body (hair growth, voice changes, wet dreams, random erections), dating, consent, safe sex, treating women and girls with respect… am I missing anything? How do I go about doing all of this so I don’t seem condescending? Any recommended resources?

Did your parent(s) have the talk with you? What did they do/say that was helpful? What do you wish they would have done? What has been your experience as a parent?

Please help me; I feel so overwhelmed!

ETA: My biggest concern is the topic of masturbation/porn. That is not my area of expertise, especially since we have different body parts. Respecting his privacy is important to me; I’ve decided that I will be knocking and waiting for an answer before entering his room. I don’t know if I want to allow locked doors in my home. A mom once told me she bought her son a couple magazines (Playboy and Hustler) to help him get to know a woman’s body. I feel like this might be a better option than him being bombarded with all the shit on the Internet, and being exposed to potentially unsafe things such as underage girls, viruses, and anyone who might try to lure him into a dangerous situation. I think I’d also like to encourage him to always use tissues to clean up rather than articles of clothing.

Why can’t he stay little forever?! 😭