Redditor Taran6702wanted to hear from the men who were willing to share about those awkward hormonal days of youth. They asked:
"Guys, what's the worst part about puberty?"
Growing up is hard. I hated my body changes. Who can understand?
Hot Days
Chicken My Body Is Ready GIF by GIPHY Studios OriginalsGiphy
"You are simultaneously the horniest you've ever been in your life, while having the least amount of game you'll ever have."
MrButtermancer
Skin Issues
"Acne for sure. I never had it too bad but I remember being very self concious about it. I can't imagine how some people I knew who had horrendous acne felt."
Thorst
"Adult acne is wild. puberty isn't just from age 12-18, it continues well through your 20s. Feels like most people dont realize that. I had an average amount of acne as a teen but when i hit 20 it went insane and cystic and awful. 28 now and on a new medication for it, hopefully i’ll have clear skin someday."
klausmckinley801
Bloomers
"Honestly, the worst part for me was some dudes literally went through puberty overnight. Say bye to your short friend Timmy on Friday and on Monday he walk in like 6 foot 1 with a full grown beard. Some dudes literally take their entire teen years to reach a level that feels like 'manhood' and when you're a slow bloomer, it can be difficult to watch everyone around you grow up while you feel like you aren't."
gamesireallylike
Gross
"The smell. I remember the exact day in which my sweat started to stink. Of course it was at school, and of course I was the last one to notice it."
V02D
"Ever get to school and realize you forgot to put on deodorant? That public bathroom liquid soap rub on the pits was something else."
"All of these answers, and nobody has mentioned that kids in puberty just-plain look freaking terrible. Some parts of your body are adult, some parts are still child-like, and it’s all mixed awkwardly together."
SwitcherooU
What awkward years. Good for all of you willing to share.
"Being made fun of every time your voice cracks, and having to learn to hide all the boners that constantly start happening. That's when the switch from sweats to jeans happens."
ur_a_donut
bad advice
"Being constantly desperately horny all the time while simultaneously your voice is breaking and you have painful acne and perhaps most importantly adults dismiss your problems or give you horrible advice."
ActiveOppressor
Shave
"Hair in places where razors are not ideal."
pranay-007
"Also as long as you buy a half decent razor and slap some shaving cream on there (though I like to use coconut conditioner), you can shave your scrotum without too much fuss. Hairy scrotums may be the grossest thing on a human body."
LetterkennyGinger
2X
"It happens twice. Your teen years and then … your 30s happen."
Magicallyjazzedup
"Happens twice for women too. Menopause is basically puberty with hot flushes and night sweats. And it can last 12 years for some women. But the symptoms are just like puberty: hormone changes, acne, mood swings, aches and pains, sh**ty menstrual cycles."
It’s never a good idea to criticize someone’s parenting style. Barring instances of abuse, one should always think very carefully before criticizing the way people raise their children, however different it might be from their own. This is especially true with siblings, and Redditor saidtomysis found himself coming head-to-head with his sister when she openly […] More
Single mothers command respect, and they ought to.
Left to raise children without a spouse, these women must be financially independent, have eyes on the backs of their heads, and somehow find additional hours beyond the normal 24 hour allotment.
And that task only becomes more difficult when they have to wrap their heads around raising boys.
There are, of course challenges and anxieties unique to male and female children and teens. Without another male person around the house to empathize, single mothers have to be very resourceful and candid to get through the years-long struggles.
"Research male puberty so you're prepared to give 'The Talk.' Also be prepared to teach your son how to shave because his father may not be available to do so himself. My mom was fully prepared for all this and more, she credits that to having 3 brothers and being the only girl."
"Also don't be afraid to expose him to girly things too! Every boy should also have an understanding of the female body because it helps them empathize with their female friends and family."
"Also don't be afraid to share your interests and hobbies with him too, it will only deepen your bond! One of my fondest memories of growing up was watching the Golden Girls with my mom."
"Definitely inform yourself about the male body. My mother never understood it and could never teach me about myself, I had to discover everything myself, and I did, but those were some years filled with strong anxiety."
"Don't harass him about girls he likes or dating, it's not funny or cute to prod, it's uncomfortable as hell and not something everyone wants to really talk about"
"Not a son of a single mother but a medical student: please for the love of god teach your son to dry his penis after he leaves the shower. You have no idea how many rashes and infections are caused by that."
People Explain The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened To Them On Their Birthday
Other people discussed the importance of being patient with a son's inherent position as a man in society. Sometimes, the wounds of the man who left take awhile to heal.
He's Not Him
"Even if you have a hardcore hatred of men you can't let that influence the way you raise a son."
"My Mom hated men because of whatever my father did to her. I was treated different from my sister because of that. I still love my mother but at one point after I moved out we didn't talk for years."
"My sister was bigger, stronger, and more athletic than me. Despite being younger she would bully me so badly. If I laid a finger on her my Mother punished me badly. Not only that, I was literally raised as a girl for the first 6-7 years of my life because of how much my Mom hated men."
"I'd say for boy or girl, never, ever, compare your child to the parent that left. Every time my mom says 'Don't act like [Dead beat]' or 'Don't make that face, you look like [Dead beat].' It breaks my heart every time because I know just how much she hates him and I don't want that for anyone else."
"Don't berate nor trash talk men with sweeping generalizations. My mom is a single mom and my dad split when I was 10 and my mom trash talked him so much that for about 2 weeks, I just about resented women until I realized how foolish and ignorant of a thing to do it was."
And others talked about the ways some single mothers try to fill the absence of a father and husband figure. The truth is, it can't be filled easily, so try to do so only makes things more strained.
It's Gotta Be Real
"Don't marry someone you don't love because you think your son needs a father-figure or for the sake of financial stability. My mom did, no one came out of it happy."
"Do not expect your son to fill your missing spouses role."
"My mom would constantly act like I was some male patriarch of the house, constantly giving me extra stress like financial concerns and death plans. Gave me an unnecessary amount of stress and didnt allow me to have much of a fun childhood since I was 'playing dad' "
Of course, we cannot let this list make us think that all single mothers do these kinds of things. There are so many amazing mothers out there busting tail and maintaining compassion all the way through. Here's to you!
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
A recent Reddit thread will leave you counting your blessings that sex doesn't actually go down like a bunch of misinformed, puberty-stricken kids think.
Good God that would be horrifying.
Let's face it. Many of us did not sit down for a long conversation about sex with our parents or our teachers. So, being kids, we used rumor and imagination to fill in the gaps.
Sex education often looked a little like the following:
First, someone's older sibling lied and said something crazy about how sex works. That kid believed the comment as gospel, and went to school the next day.
A committee was then formed at a lunch table, where any finer details and plot-holes were worked out through sheer will and blind enthusiasm.
Then, through oral tradition, a new understanding of sex took the school by storm.
"I had no clue what ejaculation was in 5th grade, so I though the thing went in and stayed there for like, the whole night. 7 hours or something, then the baby appeared" -- HaroldMcbob
"I used to think the same thing! I was always confused on how you would have sex while sleeping. I assumed you just had to get lucky and roll over top your partner in your sleep" -- SpongeV2
Years of Training
"I was not aware of the vagina having an access to an inside before I hit puberty, so I thought sex was, well, anal. And that birth was basically shi**ing a baby out."
"So anytime I was having a hard time with number 2 in the bathroom, I would try to motivate myself that I'm basically practicing the pain for child birth, and that it could be so much worse."
"In elementary a kid asked me if I knew what a condom was."
"I went ahead and described a nicotine patch." -- Pluckt007
"Kid asked me the same. 'No,' I said."
"'Well... It's when you cut the skin off your penis,' he said as we kids stared at a used condom in the bushes at our elementary school."
"I spent 3 years believing that I had seen discarded penis skin." -- Snatch_Liquor
Power in the Bedroom
"Whoever tried harder would determine the gender of the baby.." -- rosenes2
"Sheesh, then I certainly hope they were in agreement on who would "win" lol. I can't stop imagining a couple battle f***ing to the death." -- PumpkinPox
"My sister thinks sex is two people laying naked on top of each other and talking about marriage" -- satansgoldfish2222
"Depending on her age that's either really cute or really disturbing" -- zoe_2703
"the two sat there and layed naked on top of each other"
"Him: now that we are finally here on top of each other, what kind of house do you think would be nice? Her: oh I don't know, a townhouse seems nice" -- tastelessryan
Gushing
"That you just put your di** inside a woman and then the sperm starts flowing continuously, like pee."
"Oh and that you actually have to push the sperm out yourself, like pee. You learn to do that when you get old enough."
"I thought you literally could not have sex before marriage. It couldn't happen. The vagina would reject the penis like water and oil." -- ImInJeopardy
"I din't think this but I thought you could only get a girl pregnant if you were married."
"Little did I know, I was born a good 8 months before my parents got married!" -- jjgp1112
Utterly Grotesque
"I thought sperm were the size of tadpoles."
"I thought they shot out and filled up the condom like a water balloon and you would be able to see and hear them slithering and wriggling around."
"Needless to say I was scared of sexual maturity for a while."
"I heard about sheepskin or lambskin condoms when I was a kid and for some reason imagined a guy wrapping one of my rabbit pelts around his member and trying to get that into a woman."
"Never occurred to me they'd just use the skin and not the whole hide."
"I always thought homosexual meant that you like to have sex at home. I was trying to sound cool at summer camp when I was around 12 so I told everyone I was homosexual."
"All of the girls started hanging out with me and I thought all the guys were avoiding me because they were jealous."
"Realized my mistake later in the summer and never went back to that camp or talked to anyone there again."
Many blessings
One of my best friends growing up was Mormon. Luckily she had enough sexual education to understand how babies were made. She did, however, tell me about a distant cousin of hers who was so sheltered that she had absolutely no concept that sex existed at all. She and her husband both had no idea how to make babies. They thought married couples just had to pray to God to get pregnant, and they had no idea they were supposed to physically do anything.
They never had sex. After a year of "trying" (the prayer thing) they asked their bishop for spiritual guidance and what they were doing wrong, why God would not bless them with a child... And the bishop then had a very awkward sex talk with these adult people. Imagine, after a year of marriage, finding out from your bishop that you were supposed to be putting your WHAT in her WHAT!?!
Thought that babies were made by the kiss at the wedding. As in, you may kiss the bride, boom, pregnant. Also thought that you weren't allowed to kiss until marriage and this was why.
My friend told me when we were 7 that having sex was touching buts with a girl. Accidentally touched buts with a girl in the pool later and thought I had had sex. Took me a few years to figure it out.
I saw the episode of Seinfeld where George wanted to have makeup sex. I thought they meant makeup as in the beauty products you put on your face. When he was struggling to open the condom, I thought it was the pack of foundation he couldn't open. So nine year old me thought that people smeared makeup all over each other during sex.
My parents had six kids, all of us almost exactly two years apart. The logical 10yo me deduced that my parents had sex once - on their wedding night - and then the babies just started coming every two years.
"What seemingly innocent action gives off a sexual impression?"
This is about to get steamy.
All About the Subtext
"When I was 15 I made an animation for my friend's dad's drilling company. It showed a drill rod rotating in and out of a dirt hole which had a patch of grass around it. My mother saw it and told me to rethink it."
- FatherOfTheSevenSeas
COUGH INTO YOUR ELBOW
"When people make a fist to cough into, that second when they have their mouths open, I always imagine them sucking d*ck, always. And it doesn't matter who, everyone."
- tibisay_the_monkey
"Read this. Coughed like this. Got enlightened. Not doing that ever again."
- secksiboi62
In Good Hands
"When a guy is putting the car in reverse and puts his arm around the passenger seat to look behind him."
- kaylapears
"YES LORD"
- Belialzebub
"Highly underrated. Being focused is so hot."
- themoondream
Routine Maintenance
"Pulling out a wedgie/adjusting the crotch area. I'm just feeling like a sandwich down there."
- ParadoxicalProblem
"I feel really embarrassed when I notice my zipper is down. I try to fix it without anyone noticing because I'm afraid they will think I'm doing some perverted stuff."
- oldcoffee
It's Just Awkward
"Adjusting your stockings."
- RhesusFactor
"F*cks sake, just wearing them is enough for me..."
- xzyvy
"Uh, when I adjust my stocking under a skirt or a dress I do this weird awkward dance and, trust me, it does not look sexual. It probably because I try to hide the fact that I'm doing it and try to do it discretely, but it never works out that way."
- Salt_rock_lamp
Pretty Much Anything Around Adjusting Clothes.
"Adjusting your belt. Especially going from one notch to another."
- KindaAlwaysVibrating
"Making room for the gorge? Sexy."
- boosayrian
"This is how I pick up women at Golden Corral."
- youknowhattodo
Through a Lens of Loneliness
"When I was younger, getting a hug from a girl would have me fantasizing about our future together for months."
- Diraka
"Sh*t, it wouldn't even take a hug for me. When I was younger, a girl could just be polite while I was paying her for my Auntie Anne's pretzels and before the transaction was over she was the one and we were going to be together forever."
- compendium88
"Look at this player."
- Maselang_Bahaghari
Gotta Be a Freud Quote for this
"The look on your face when you're about to sneeze."
- SomeOriginalContent
"Can confirm. People pay me money to sneeze, and it is definitely sexual to them."
- wanderingnightt
"They say a sneeze is 1/8 of an orgasm. That's why I keep a pepper shaker on my nightstand."
- Torpid-O
The Hot, and the Not So Hot
"Seeing a guy take off a sweater by reaching over his head and pulling it off. I have no idea how guys are able to undress this way but it can definitely be a turn on."
- DazedAndConfused0112
"Because they don't have boobs."
- aqua64
"I stuff my arms into the sleeve then slip my head in..."
- Synzy
These Conspiracy Theories Are Easy to Debunk | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
There are some bizarre conspiracy theories out there. Like Australia isn't actually real... seriously? Any conspiracy theory that requires many people to kee...
Risqué Dessert
"I no longer eat ice cream in public thanks to multiple people telling me that I eat them 'seductively.'"
- dragon8713
"Similarly I got in trouble for deep-throating a popsicle when I was like 8. I don't even know why I did it. My step dad told me to stop."
- Chipring13
"Eating a lollipop. Or candycane. Sometimes even a popsicle."
- XTasty09
"Can confirm."
"Our neighborhood had an ice cream party and I saw the dads do a double take while trying to stop my popsicle from dripping. Still getting smiles and hellos from them 2 yrs later."
- Throwawaybibbi
“Friends,” Right.
"Trying to make a friend of the opposite sex once you're over 25. It's SO hard to just make friends without it seeming like you're trying to get with them."
- ACakeCalledDenial
"I have a female coworker that I chat with regularly, my wife thinks she wants to bang me. 'No, Honey, not all opposite sex relationships have to revolve around sex.'"
"Turns out she was right... but I shut that down lol."
- medium2slow
The Most Innocent, the Most Sexual
"Genuinely listening/responding. I can find you interesting without wanting to get in your pants."
- Sloth_Reborn
"This. God knows how many times I have given the wrong idea because somehow people have come to conclusion that you only listen to opposite gender if you wanna f*ck them."
- Moonlights_Embrace
Wandering Eyes
"Looking someone up and down by accident. Eyes wander sometimes. Also licking your lips, that always looks suspect."
- AncientLineage
"I mean, you first have to know where to not look at in the first place. When you first meet a girl and as you first lay your eyes her, you notice she has generous goods and you're worried she'll think you're some sort of perv but really you're just making sure to never stare there again. Or it's even worse when she is just drop dead gorgeous and as you're making eye contact you're worried that you're looking at her with the eyes of a trout on an ice counter as much her beauty is intense. It's hard to explain, but it's rustling my jimmies."
- Ticoune0825
How Are You That Close to Someone?
"Telling someone they smell good."
- rebelliousturian
"The only two women who ever told me that, I slept with... so..."
- Redditor
"I'm someone who absolutely loves the smell of cologne (I'm a woman and enjoy wearing men's scents too) and one day I told my coworker he smelled good, and almost immediately he went from giving me the cold shoulder to being a lot more friendly and honestly, flirty with me. He also pretty much wore that cologne every day after that. I was genuinely just giving a compliment because I can really appreciate a good cologne but now I know."
- Redditor
Yeah, can't do this innocently.
"Biting the lower lip."
- IronTemplar26
"I hate when people think I like them when I do that but its just my anxiety tendency."
- rosiepatxh
Bend With Your Knees.
"Bending over to pick something up."
- Kingmir1
"Bend and snap. Works every time."
- DPlagtheWise
If You're Into That.
"Apparently playing with my shoe and letting it hang off my foot is sexual; at least that's what some random dude told me at a bar once."
- Bayonethics
"It's called dangling."
- Redditor
"In the past (I know about early 1900) it was a way for prostitutes to let know a guy at a formal place they wanted to offer their services. Often they also wrote the price with chalk on the sole."
- burned_pixel
Check The Grammar.
"I was working from home one night and whilst doing yoga, my wife over stretched and said without hesitation 'f*ck my a**' Unfortunately what she really meant was 'F*ck, my a**.'"
- Pxander
"That's an important life lesson right there: before you grab her & ram her, be sure to check the grammar."
- HuntforMusic
Apparently, Anything Is Sexual.
"In middle school, my day planner had a spiral ring for binding. I always put my pen into the spiral ring in order to keep them together when I packed it into my backpack at the end of class. It just seemed like a rational, organized thing to do."
"A girl complained that this looked too sexual."
- dexterpine
"What was going on in her mind....?!"
- BinaryTrip
"It’s middle school. Everyone’s going through puberty at that time."
- rosenwaiver
When a purely functional action appears wildly sexual, it's a total paradigm shift.
It does not matter if years went by with no promiscuous conclusions. The action could have been totally functional, a mundane behavior of daily life.
But it shifts.
When the threshold is crossed into the sex universe, the once behavior can never regain the old innocence.
It’s like passing the risqué Rubicon.
But this is not the Roman army stuck on the wrong side of a river.
This is an array of tongues and lips and teeth and eyes, in no particular order.
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