So, I'm trying to get my son into reading more. By 'more' I mean 'at all'.
My favorite type of books are fantasy and so far any of those I've attempted to get him to read have failed. Tolkien, David Eddings, Dragonlance… but he says those are boring and take too long to get interesting.
I thought… "What about 'Fight Club'?"
It's been a long while since I've read it but I thought at least we could maybe watch the movie after. I remember there are some scenes in the movie that are pretty explicit wrt sex. But I'd forgotten that parts of the book are as bad/worse.
My son is closer to 16 than 15 and in high school so I'm sure that he's subjected to crass sexual content more often than not. And violence is fairly common in the video games, news, etc… but there still seems to be this awkward barrier with sexual content.
I mean, I don't even like watching scenes like that with MY dad!
But he started last night and got through the parts about Chloe so… maybe the worst is half over? haha.
am I being overly naive or concerned?
by UnBuggsyBaggins
5 Comments
Teens least favorite thing is being treated like a kid. So since this is the opposite of that maybe I’ll even appreciate it!
A 15/16 year old boy is surely ready to encounter the topic of sex – in a book. That’s probably the healthiest(?) place to encounter it, honestly.
Suggestion: Find movies that interest him, that dont have explicit sex in them. Then get the book for it.
fight club probably isnt a great book to give your son. Generally its best practice to not give teenagers books immersing them in psychopathic behaviour.
You have to have sane boundaries. The goal should not be “get him to read books at all costs”.
Focus on WHY you want him to read (hopefully, that is “improving his mind AND character”) and only give him books that strengthen those.
I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not like you’re reading it aloud to him! As you say, it’s not like this will be his first exposure to sexual content. Just don’t try to have an in depth conversation about the sexual bits of the book and there’s unlikely to be any awkward moments!
I think you’re being overly concerned/cautious.
Sex was always a super awkward thing in my house growing up. The “talk” I got was my mom throwing a box of condoms at me begging me not to get my gf pregnant when I was 16.
As a parent who hasn’t gotten to this stage yet…I’m planning on being a lot more open and hopefully being more comfortable with the topic of sex in my house. Plus, it was pretty common that 15 yr olds had seen some pretty crazy stuff in the 2000s, I’d imagine it’s much worse now.