Puberty resources?

[BloominFlower]

Anyone know of good resources for my DS on puberty for boys? Also, is there anything for parents?

For parents there is wine and cigarettes 😂

I’ll certainly note down the wine part 😅

And a good tip for parents is, if you find a sock under the bed, don’t put your hand inside to turn it the right way out 🤢

How old is he? They'll have done it in school by y6. Sr Emily's growing up for girls was a laughing point for Dts but with very practical advice and the boys version is apparently good.

My mum handed me a book called becoming a woman and never mentioned anything again. I knew them and there I wouldn't be like that with my kids. I just answer any questions factually and in an age appropriate way.

He’s 13 although no sign of puberty yet. He does have a mild learning/social disability too that’s why I’d like to make sure that he’s informed and I am too

At 13 has he not covered everything in school? Or noticed that some of his peers have deeper voices? Or hairy legs? If his LD are mild this does seem quite old to be starting to think about this. What's happening to me are quite child friendly, (get boys and girls versions) but aimed at younger kids obviously.

To be honest, it’s not something that either of us have brought up much which is my fault. I’m not sure about school since he doesn’t like to tell me how his day has gone or what he’s done🙄

Yes one of his close friends has a deep voice already (which I thought was fast?) but since he hasn’t got any signs I’ve been oblivious until he’s turned 13 then I thought I should probably get on it to prevent any anxiety for him.

thanks for the recommendation I’ll have a look

Assuming he's at mainstream he'll have covered puberty and sex at primary.

I think 13 is pretty average for boys' voices to be breaking not particularly early.

As I said please do cover girls as well.

My son is in year 7 and has just done a huge biology section about reproduction which included puberty, contraception, birth ect.

I am a midwife and have been very open from a young age around puberty (male and female), sex, pregnancy and birth. Now my 2 boys (8 and 12) are very open with me.

You may find he knows a fair amount already. I also gave him the Dr Ranj book about growing up for boys if he wanted to look things up without asking.

I think he’s quite embarrassed talking about it at school, he’s easily stressed and anxious as it is. I don’t know what they covered but I assume it must’ve been similar since it’s a country wide syllabus(?)

Thanks I’ll check that book out too, he likes reading a lot so It’s probably the best thing to give him

13 and not informed hmmm ok. I think a good parent would make sure kids are informed about everything pitfalls,disasters,sex,puberty,drugs,drink etc long long before 13. That's one thing in our family nobody is embarrassed to talk about anything and all is open. If the kids ask something they are told the truth in the right way about life

Good point. You'll need to have a talk about porn as well - he may well have already seen some

He will have done it in school whether mainstream or special.

I apologise if I’ve got the wrong impression, but you’re implying that I’m a bad mum purely based on the fact that we haven’t brought up this topic much. Which I don’t think is very fair. Yes, I should have brought it up sooner but obviously there’s a slight reluctance, also every family is different, it’s understandable if you’re family is really open, but ours isn’t at least in this respect. My son has also not gone through this yet, nor is he a social risk taker so it just never occurred for me to being up serious conversations about drugs, sex etc

He may not necessarily have covered this in school. My child is 13 and missed most of the scheduled sex ed lessons that my other children had (or whatever they’re called now) because of lockdown.

OP please don't feel bad about this, (despite other posters taking the opportunity to demonstrate how superior their parenting is), all families and all kids are obviously different. It is not too late to try to start having these conversations with your son. As long as he knows he can speak to you if he wants, and you provide him with reliable sources of information, that's fine. The only thing that isn't fine, in my view, is not allowing those conversations to happen if your child wants them, which clearly you wouldn't do.

I agree with PP about the "what's happening to me" book 🙂

I made my son a playlist on amaze.org they have two to four minute cartoon style videos on all of the pshe elements, puberty, conception, contraception, sexuality and relationships.
if you create an account (it’s free) then you can make the list of what you want them to see so it’s developmentally appropriate and not overwhelming.
My son is younger than yours so a lot didn’t apply to him yet but I think I’ll use it again in the future. I’d link but I think it’s better on a laptop. You can watch the videos together or just ask him if he wants to talk about any of it, my son didn’t want to watch it with me!

Oh and yeah it goes without saying it’s not a reflection on your parenting! I’d ignore that poster, we all know at least a couple of people like that in real life.

He should have covered puberty in Y7 as statutory education - I guess this would have been last year, so unlikely to be during lockdowns.
We discuss the bodily and emotional changes of puberty, and routes to obtaining better guidance if needed (if I feel ashamed of wet dreams, who can I speak to for reassurance). We also cover FGM. I'd be amazed if he managed to miss this; we do a full week on puberty in school (in one subject, but over 5-6 lessons across the week.)

This might work

Thanks for the reassurance everyone, speaking to a one of his friend’s mums, they only deal with the scientific portions, although I don’t personally know. To add a bit more context I should say he has autism, which mainly affects his social side but also he’s not particularly ‘street smart’ and lacks common sense about things that might seem obvious to others. We had a situation a few years ago where a group of kids was passively making fun if him and bullying him but he didn’t really get it. Puberty is one of those things I think were it’s not obvious, so I want to help make sure he understands and doesn’t get upset, I regret nit picking this up earlier but there’s no point in dwelling, I should focus on the now

Also dad isn’t around so I’m learning about a lot of this stuff at the same time

Can I also then suggest covering slang words for body parts, sex acts, ejaculating etc. maybe not all at once, but he'll hear words like wank and cum from his peers and you don't want him to be the one that innocently asks 'what's a blow job?'

Really good point.
I did this as a kid at the dinner table “what’s a dildo?” 😳I’d totally forgotten about that.

Gosh I hope not! He can be extremely blunt with his speech too and often say thing s how he sees them without thought