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As an American of a conservative stripe I would definitely object if my children were shown depictions of genitalia as Kindergartners, and wouldn't really feel "fine" about it until they were, I dunno, maybe 10 or 11? It's just not what you do. You don't show kids penises!
Certainly Americans are more "prudish" about this than other cultures, but that doesn't change anything about the hypothetical, since it was directed at Americans with hypothetical American kindergartners. Things may be changing in certain subcultures, but generally in American culture genitals mean sex and its taboo to combine children and sex. From this cultural mindset the difference between showing a 5 year old a picture of a marble penis and showing them hardcore pornography is one of degree, not kind.
All that to say that the comment that we're not going to show the statue to kindergartners is plausibly just that obvious to the average American.
How do you do toilet training with your kids if genitals mean sex and a taboo with regards to children? Besides, how does the statue with a penis become okay at 10 but not at 6 years old? They are still very much kids right?
I'm confused. Why would toilet training require showing my children other people's genitals? I'm genuinely confused here.
My understanding was that not only showing genitals but just generally talking about them was taboo since culturally genitals mean sex according to the OP. Besides, when I was a small kid I remember peeing together with my dad or older cousins and everyone thought this was pretty normal. We had contests between cousins of who can pee the farthest. It was fun. I didn't start associating genitals with anything other peeing until much later.
Ah, that makes sense. I only have girls myself so I forgot peeing with my dad to learn how to do it without making a mess.
Really, now that I consider that, I think the main taboo is against girls seeing male genitals, and vice versa.
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Presumably one would not employ a real or photographed demo penis during toilet training. I think keeping the kid's focus on their own penis is good enough. Thankfully, in the Elmo book/video that was popular when my kids were learning how to become civilized, Elmo was not hanging dong.
If we can agree that older kids are better at contextualization than younger kids, I think that answers your question. Anyway, these questions are irrelevant.
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Do you never do things like bath with your children when they're young? Or do you always wear bathing suits even at home? I have to admit I find the attitude genuinely puzzling, I don't want to make fun of you, I just don't even get how you manage to avoid them seeing nudity until a certain age. Many children's books here include nude people. If anything, there is the problem that older kids are more likely to associate nudity with sex so you show less nudity around them, while with small children your main problem will be that they think pulling or pinching your penis is funny when they see your reaction.
Never! That sounds bizarre to me. Definitely taboo. Fully grown penises should not be floating next to toddlers.
You can be nude around a baby, but once they're smart enough to start talking you treat them like other people. Do you walk around nude in public? Maybe you do, but that isn't done here. With our oldest I remember the day that my wife scolded me for letting our toddler see me on the toilet. She was about 2 years old, I think.
An important piece of context that might be missing is that gender really matters. My wife can be naked around our young daughters, that's not taboo. If we had young sons I could be naked around them, though it's not something you'd do casually. But in my America little girls shouldn't be looking at adult penises. It's taboo.
Ha, I guess the only constant is that we all get scolded by our wifes. I just want to sit on the toilet in peace, but both her and our daughter constantly come in for various reasons and if I complain I'm scolded for being silly, it's not like there's anything they haven't seen a million times before!
Come on, "we treat our children like adult strangers" is hardly a generalising conservative principle, if anything it's usually progressives that are often criticised for that. I'm also neither changing the diapers of other people nor am I scolding them for improper manners and in general I will keep my distance, both emotionally and physically. Intra-family behaviour is just something else entirely from public behaviour. Also, we have public nude beaches here, although they are fringe they also aren't looked down upon, so I guess our culture in general is more comfortable with nudity and less sexualised.
Oh I don't think any of this is a generalized conservative principle. I'm not saying this is how it should be, just how it is in conservative American culture. At least, my corner of it. I'm describing, not prescribing.
That referred to the "Do you walk around nude in public?". No, and I do not consider my behaviour around strangers to have much bearing on how I behave around family.
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That was more from pre-emptively avoiding answering questions that I was not sure to answer but when I was bathing with 2 year old sister (making mini-water park in bathroom) I was wearing bathing suit (I was 18 years old at that time).
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