My son aged 9’s question about sex made me feel difficult. This world is still considered a taboo in our country’s social structure. I myself do not consider this word to be respectable. This word that creates much vibration in our culture doesn’t create much noise in the West. Whether it is because of the education they receive at school or sex is not considered to be of a big deal, this word doesn’t create much curiosity here in the West. My 9 years son asks many questions these days of various topics. His questions are bent into many types these days. I try my best to solve his curiosities.
It happened on the day when I was taking my 9 years old son to a swimming class in Astoria complex in a train. Train had 20-25 people. All kinds of people, black-white Americans, Hispanics, Asian etc. (America being a nation of immigrants, we can see people of all different culture and races here. Especially, New York City is a melting pot.)Some people were reading in the train, others were playing games on their phone while some were trying to get rest with their eyes closed. Some were talking to their friends. Everyone in their own world. I began browning my Facebook profile. Facebook has become a powerful communicating tools these days. People post incidents throughout the world via Facebook and it becomes viral within minutes. So, I contribute few moments of my days to the Facebook.
“MOM, what is a Museum of Sex? What is it about?” My son interrupted the silence in the train with this question. My own attention shifted. He asked again considering my response, “What is sex? Mom? “He pointed at the advertisement on the top of the train seats. Nothing special was on the advertisement except that it was written in there “Museum of Sex.” In the child brain, the word “sex” was enough to create curiosity. He was waiting for my response. He had visited many museums up till now but neither him or I had heard of a “sex” museum. He used to enjoy going to museums because I used to reiterate how important it is to go to museums to gain more knowledge.
All the train passengers began looking at me and my son. Some were surprised by this unexpected question while others were curious. Some were wondering what will my answer be. I was myself wondering but I controlled myself. It was my duty to answer every question that pop in the head of my children. I remembered my religion and culture.
I remembered my country and my childhood. I began remembering the things I had seen and experienced since childhood. Today and my times weren’t same. Time had changed many things around. Today we are in the 21st century and my son shall remember what I said for a long time. I wasn’t going to explain the wrong meaning of his question and mislead him. I remember, I have been embracing what my mother taught up till now. I promised myself that I would give the right answer so that he’d not find me wrong when he grows up.
In other words, today’s children are not like the kids of our times. They have moved forward to a great extent and they must keep moving on. Otherwise, they will have a hard time surviving. This is the reason why I consider it to be my duty to properly answer every question.
Some parents born in a country like mine might not like my response but do they want their children to try finding answers to their curiosity via laptop and computers. Do they want their children watching porn and online videos to find their answers?
They definitely do not want that. Our human nature is such that whatever is hidden, we try to find out about it as much as possible. These are children whose learning phase is just beginning. If we can answer their questions properly, maybe we can help them raise their ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Thus, I decided to answer my son and again read his curiosity. “What is sex Mom?” He was still waiting for my response. “Sex is a normal thing which happens in between man and woman.” I replied at last. (Although sex is today a vast topic, this is what I considered to be the right response at the moment.)
I mentioned,” God has created two kinds, men and women to run the world. Two different types of bodies. You have the body of a man while myself including all the ladies have the body of a women.” Your body is different from that of women. You can cover your lower part and walk around while we must cover two parts of the body.
There’s nothing surprising about it. Whoever is here is either a male or female. This is God’s creation. While people grow up, they get attracted to opposite sex. They then undergo physical intercourse which is called sex. This happens in all, sooner or later. You shall understand it when you grow up.
This is how I answered. I don’t know how much of it he understood. However, I could understand that some of his curiosity had been answered. I breathed an air of satisfaction. White lady who was sitting beside me aged 65/70 was listening to our conversation. She said, she was happy that I was performing my duty of being a mother very well. Greeting the white lady a good bye, we got off the train.
