Adventures of Pre-pubescent Kid

Blogger has been having issues... must it's time of the month...

Speaking of cycles, the other day I was being all mom-like with my kid (go figure) and he interrupted me to ask if it was "my time of the month". It stopped me in my mom-tracks. Hold on cowboy...WTH? To be clear, I asked him what he meant.

"Oh, don't worry, Mom. Sam told me all about that stuff girls go through every month", he said.

Really?

Wonderful. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for the conversation about menstruation those boys had.

Both my kid and his BFF, Sam, are on the cusp on puberty. Both are extremely innocent compared to their peers (which is a whole other story!). Sam is neuro-typical, but we joke that the two boys are nerd-mates separated at birth. Yet, Sam has an older sister and has been through sex-ed at school, I imagine. So, he shared with my kid I assume.

We've put of that talk with our kid. The hubby just didn't think the boy was ready. I didn't want him to find out from kids around him or the internet. I wanted to make sure my boy has the correct information, not from the oodles misinformation and propaganda in cyber space. And certainly not from peers who have heard stories and anecdotes from other peers. I want him to learn the biology of the body correctly. I want him to learn sexuality in the healthiest manner possible. 

I'm not ready for this! The other day I noticed my boy had some acne. It can't be!! He's only ten... what's next? Children should come with that pop up done-ness thingy they put in turkeys. In that pop up thing should be a set of instructions.

Or maybe the pop up timer is really acne? Could be that is the signal that its time to learn the next phase of biology. After all, we've named all the parts, discussed how your body works to sustain your life: Brain, lungs, muscles, blood, nerves, skin, bones, farts... we've done all that. Now its time to focus on the other stuff-- the coming of age stuff.

I started with kidshealth.org. They have an age appropriate section on puberty for kids. So I emailed him several sections from the website that explained puberty. I also mixed it in with stuff about funny bodily functions, like farts. I am hoping that breaks the ice on the topic of sex and his changing body.

I don't know if he's read any of it and he hasn't said yay or nay. My guess is that he either isn't going to want to talk about this stuff with me or he's going to be so open with it that I won't know what to do. Like when he brings up inappropriate topics at the dinner table... at his grandparents dinner table in front of the whole family? I can only imagine him sharing his new found knowledge with his grandparents.  And he's so inquisitive lately that the follow up questions would cause people to spit out their drinks.


"Grandmommy, when did Daddy get pubic hair?"

Boy, is this ever going to be fun! But isn't autism all about fun?  You never, ever know what is next. Puberty is going to be an adventure.  A long, long adventure that is just beginning. Just when I got a grip on small people autism, I find myself in pre-pubescent autism. It's completely foreign territory. I know one thing: I'm going to hear his new catch phrase all the time-- "Mom, you're embarrassing me".