u/Lapis_Wolf

Background: For context, I grew up as what you would often call 'conservative'. My country is generally conservative and religious (Bahamas, many Anglican, Protestants, Baptists, Catholics, etc, churches everywhere) and grew up in a half local Anglican, half Sephardic Jewish household with me following Judaism after my father. In all, my surroundings growing up were generally conservative. I was raised to be respectful and I can tell they want the best for me, but I feel like it would be awkward to ask them or many people around me these questions without them worrying or getting weird looks.

I'm a legal adult (21), but I have not married or had children yet. However, I do want to eventually have children and I keep wondering how I should raise them so they are healthy and knowledgeable about the world around them. One of the issues that keep coming to mind is how to handle teaching about nudity and body parts, which would understandably be a hot topic in my region. We even had an assignment about that in my English 300 university class. I will be asking about some things I've read and seen online, but have no proof of (which is why I'm asking here). I also want to ask neutrally so I can make a proper decision about what could become a very controversial topic in some circles.

1. While I will continue practicing religiously and still lean somewhat socially conservative, I don't want my future kids to be so sheltered from the topic that they could grow up ignorant enough to be tricked into anything or not know what to do. I've noticed my country unfortunately has a high rate of child abuse, and I read in another post in this sub that teaching proper anatomical names for "private parts" (penis, anus, breasts, vagina, etc) could help children report abuse of those areas. How early and in what way do you recommend exposing them to these words to keep them informed without scaring or grossing them out? How can I teach them to identify and report abuse and know who to trust so they are safe? I heard a lot of abuse comes from within the family.

2. Growing up, I ended up finding and watching porn as a preteen and didn't want my parents to find out. I still see it nowadays and have come to realize and see information about the harm it can do to young (or any) brains. How do I teach my kids so I can be sure they know the dangers and can avoid pornography out of their own effort (even when I'm not around)? Is there a noticeable difference on the brain between seeing porn (even "standard" forms, let alone the extreme stuff online) and nonsexual nudity like bathing, some statues, paintings and other artistic or normal forms? Should I be concerned about them seeing nonsexual drawings of nudity, whether of real subjects or fictional ones (like some worldbuilding I've seen depicting nudity of characters and statues in fake worlds) or is that a non-issue? Would artists with kids also have to worry about this? I've seen some people in naturist circles say that kids raised around family nudity in the household (basically doing normal activities without clothes) makes them less worried about how their bodies look and lessen the chances of sexualizing people (and looking for porn). Is this claim true in any sense or is it unfounded? Would general nudity in the house be healthy or detrimental to their development? I imagine it would definitely get weird looks from neighbors if anyone saw.

3. I noted that the societies of developed North America (mainly Canada and USA) tend to be a lot more prude about nudity compared to continents like Europe and Asia (which both are less concerned about nudity at beaches and bathhouses). Has this caused any negative effects on the education of families and how to interact with society? I also noticed some cultures are less worried about nudity in media (like the French enjoying their raunchy jokes or Japanese anime sometimes having uncensored nonsexual nudity like some Studio Ghibli movies which are often watched by kids globally, such as the girls on the plane not wearing their dresses in Porco Rosso or the cat bus in My Neighbor Totoro having balls, and non Ghibli anime like Dragonball just having young Goku's genital out with no censor or covering). While I will not be showing them explicitly sexual or mature content, should I still be concerned about similar stuff in Y7-PG13 media or would I be worrying too much about them seeing something like that in an old anime or something?

4. I relatively recently came across a YouTube video of a horse giving birth and I heard in the background a girl (I believe the poster's daughter), but she wasn't crying, it sounded like the mother was trying to inform her of something at times. I assume they live in a farm or ranch and they seem to live and work with horses frequently judging by the other videos. Would children witnessing births, human or otherwise, do any harm to them mentally or would/could that be an educational moment? I don't know anything about how this would play out. Would it be different for people who grew up living around different animals compared to those growing up in a city/town?

I'm asking with the assumption of being ignorant and sheltered about a lot of things regarding similar topics. While I realize gender and sexuality eventually become related topics, I am mainly wondering about how to teach about the physical body in this case. If there are better ways to ask about this, I don't think I know about them, I'm just asking in the way I know how. Sorry if it sounds like rambling.

When someone gets hurt, why does he go straight to saying a taboo word instead of something else? If a language or culture had no taboo words, is he less likely to say those words because something else came up first? Would he say anything at all?

Why do kids happily scream and repeat a bad word they just learned, but seemingly not any other words they learn? Do they need to know it's taboo to start repeating it loudly? What happens if they don't know it's taboo? Would they forget about it and not scream it like they learned a regular boring word? This always felt to me like something kids innately know is taboo and thus should be shouted repeatedly. XD I'm not sure why my brain came to that conclusion. It just felt like innate kid behaviour.

I saw a post from 7yr ago asking about the etymology of spay and neuter for dogs. I noticed another term people often use is fix. I never liked using that term since it implies a regular dog or any animal in general born with all organs intact and working are "broken". Imagine how insulting that would be telling that to a human. "You still have your ovaries? Why do you choose to be broken? Wouldn't it be better to be fixed?" Anyway, why do people use the term "fixed" for removing sexual organs from dogs?