To find this reported conversation with a child rather disturbing, or am I a massive old prude?

[AyeReet]

I don't think it's even slightly healthy or appropriate to be discussing your sex toys with a young child no matter how you dress it up as being progressive or empowering

Am I utterly prudish and Victorian or is that a bit... off? I'm fond of my vibrators but like fuck would I leave them drying in the bathroom or tell my young children what I use them for!

‘And then everybody cheered’ 😆

Virtue signaling and most likely not true or a varnished level of the truth. Depending on the age, most kids do not just shrug and say ‘mm-ok’ when you explain an adult issue like that to them. It’s never just a case of ‘what’s that?’ ‘It’s x’ with my 4 and 7 year olds: it’s more like:

‘What’s that?’

‘It’s x, I used it yesterday so now it’s drying’

‘Why does it need to dry?’

‘Because I washed it’

‘Why?’

‘Um... because it had stuff on it’

‘What stuff?’

‘Just stuff’ (woke tweeter would presumably go into minute detail here)

‘Is that like when you use y and you have to clean it?’

‘A bit’

‘How do you clean it? Do you use soap? Why is it called “prosthetic”? What does that mean? Can kids use them? Why not? Do boys use their real penis and their prosthetic one? Can you pee with it?’

And so on and on and on with another 200 questions on top of that. That’s how most DC I know are anyway. Maybe woke kids are better at just shutting up and accepting whatever nonsense adults tell them without question?

Sure, Jan

Yuck.

It belongs on R/thathappened

People need to put stuff on their social media so they make it up.

Didn't occur to me that someone would make it up, I was too busy going wtf. They even used their child's real name in the post, which made me feel double uneasy.

That dildo’s name? Albert Einstein.

Sounds like bullshit .
A kid really sad “papa, what’s your prosthetic penis doing over there?”
Really? Nah..

I agree it’s probably fake, but I also agree that it’s not appropriate.

It’s perfectly possible to talk to your kids about sex in a healthy way (and unlike some PPs I think parents should be teaching their kids in an age-appropriate way that sex isn’t always for making babies, isn’t always between a man and a woman, and that people can and do have sex for fun etc) without relating that to specific instances of the parent in question having sex.

Having a general discussion - fine. Leaving your prosthetic penis out and telling your child it’s because you used it recently - not fine. You can normalise queer sex in a way that doesn’t break down parental boundaries in an inappropriate way like this scenario does.

Why would anyone make this up?
It’s either a weird and inappropriate conversation which actually happened (children do not need to know about the mechanics of their parents’ sex lives)

OR

Some weird person has made this to upset other people.

Either way it’s very odd. I definitely don’t understand a lot of what people do

Whether it actually happened or not I think it's promoting two dangerous messages, one that it's ok to talk to your children in a way that is pretty much grooming. Also though it's reinforcing the idea a transman is a 'genuine' man who lacks a body part, hence calling it a prosthetic, making it no different to an artificial arm or leg and trying to make whoever objects to talking about/showing it just as wrong as they would be if it was a prosthetic leg. Constantly trying to back up the story that you can be a different sex in the wrong body.

Load of shit. My kids would've straplectit on their heads and pretended they were unicorns, no questions asked.

Probably made up to get some attention. Odd.

Bullshit.
But if it was genuine and the kid mentioned this at school I'm pretty sure it would be flagged as a safeguarding issue.

I dunno, if it's a young kid they can take things at face value. I can understand a trans dad explaining it thus, and I can imagine trans parents may have to explain certain things frankly early on to aid their kids' understanding.

The kid, if young, may not even realise at this stage that a mum can't get pregnant with a prosthetic penis, or make the leap 'Wait, this means they're having sex without making babies! '

I guess some will think 'But this means they'll be confused and have wrong ideas about sex', I'd say all kids get wrong ideas about sex from the way it's talked about ('Daddy plants a seed in mummy's tummy', 'Daddy puts his willy in mummy's bellybutton') and as we get older and gain understanding, those get clarified without any harm being done. So like other kids learn sex doesn't involve bellybuttons (not on my watch it doesn't anyway ) they will learn over time that for other people it doesn't involve a strap-on.

I think this is one for the It Never Happened awards

I think it's fine that a trans-parent makes the effort to normalise their lives for their children. Being frank about bodies and how things work is the best way to educate our children and ensure they remain healthy, make healthy choices and don't accidentally get pregnant at twelve because they thought a mummy and daddy had to have a special hug to have a baby.

I personally wouldn't have chosen to tell my child I'd used something for sex. But I would explain that things that touch genitals need careful cleaning to ensure we don't get sick or pass disease. My five year old boy is already pretty well versed in menstruation and my menstrual cup after walking in on me one time. I don't consider that grooming or awkward, now he'll hopefully grow into the type of teen who carries sanitary products around just in case one of his female friends gets caught out.

That's awful. I think talking about sex with children is on a 'need to know' basis. How their bodies work, why they are different, in time where babies come from and all the different types of relationships...

No one needs to see someone else's strap on soaking in some Dettol. No one. Not even an adult. Inappropriate to the max.

Ew. I really hope this exchange is fantasy, or I really feel for those poor kids. Totally innapropriate to have sex toys out where children can see them - it's not woke its abuse.

What Damntheman said. My young DCs know about menstruation, my cup and what I use it for. They also see my cup being washed etc. A child could have similar knowledge of a parent’s prosthetic penis or prosthetic breast, as something that the parent uses or is part of them. Referring to how the item is used in sex is inappropriate though. Knowing about sex in a biological way is fine, learning about sex in a personal way from your parents is not Ok.

Hi all,
Thanks to those who flagged this. We can see that the poster has been with us for several years and has posted thousands of times, so we do not have immediate concerns that this is a troll post.

A troll? I'm not a sodding troll, I've been here since forever, I just don't want my friends who've shared this on FB to be twig it's me that posted it on MN!

For those who doubt it, link here www.facebook.com/192464154718345/posts/366490280649064/ to the actual post I have seen being shared. Maybe it didn't happen, I don't know, but what I do know is that people are taking it seriously as an example of how to talk to your DC about sex and I find it really weird

I didn't want to share the link at first because I'd rather not encourage traffic to it but if I'm gonna be accused of being a troll or fantasist or whatever then fine, have the original source!

Agree it’s made up! (The tweet, not op’s post)

@ Sux2buthen‘s DC being unicorns.

Yuck.
TBH I think some people who are so keen on being 'open and honest' with children about all aspects of sex (I don't mean basic info) are getting off on it and hoping to arouse their interest.

We once had a neighbour in his 50s who was in the habit of inviting in several pre-adolescent local kids, including a dd, and telling them in detail all about what he liked to do to his GF, and vice versa.

Maybe a bit of an extreme case, but once we found out it was very soon stopped, and the police were informed. He hadn't actually done anything physical, but the police took it very seriously and took his details for future reference.