7yo son has asked me what does gay and lesbian mean?

[shatteredmumsrus]

Initial reaction from dp was why do you want to know that??Icalmed it down and said I will tell you when you are a bit older. What would you do????????????????

A fellow writer has said to me that "in the future this will be as irrelevant as whether one likes tomatoes." I think that's a little optimistic of him, but I can see what he means.

eurgh! That's sooo tomato-loving.

I'm really surprised by people saying that 8 year olds are not asking for the absolute ins and outs (so to speak) of the relationships. I don't think there's an 8 year old in our school who doesn't know the mechanics of sex. I think the question, if posed by an 8 year old, is probably not about loving relationships, but about mechanics. Or am I being cynical here?

aha. See your point. Can imagine the inner tears of tedium as kindly parent witters on about 'some poeple fall in love with.." when you just want to know how the do it.

at "inner tears of tedium" obm. Yes, that's kind of where I was going...!

janinlondon - I'm sure most 8 year olds do indeed know the mechanics of sex - but I expect the vast majority of them only know about the bare basics and only know it as how you make babies. I might be wrong but I think the idea of doing it for fun - which would therefore make them wonder about same-sex relations - has yet to dawn on them.

or maybe dh and I have been a bit too, erm, biological (?), about the whole thing....

I so didn't want to repeat the excruciating "it's such a beautiful and special thing" conversation I had when I was far too old, that we've talked about willies, vaginas and babies and not luuurvvve.

hatwoman, my ds (6) does know that you 'do sex' because it feels nice as well as to make babies. He saw an ad for condoms and ..