How open are you and your family?

[Locut0s]

By open I mean how freely do you discuss issues such as sexuality, dating, drug use etc etc etc... Things that people usually find embarrassing to talk with family about. Things that you would usually only talk to friends about. My family has always been pretty damn open though my father is much more so than my mother. I have talked to my father about sex and sexuality countless times. I've talked with my parents about wanting sex and wanting to date etc (I should mention I'm 27 :blush: ) ... They are also very open about drug use. They would not condone me using heavy drugs but would not probably make a deal if I started smoking pot (so long as it didn't interfere with my life).

[elshiva]

1. I'm 27, too.

Very open with my parents because they are open-minded, liberal people. They know that I am bisexual and occasionally my mom has pointed out cute women to me! :)

[Skittles]

2. wtf is up with those Mickeys, elshiva?

I WILL KICK YOUR ASS

[Locut0s]

3. Got a Mickey Mouse phobia?

[Capn Sunshine]

22. who doesn't

fucking Disney creeps me out , man

[elshiva]

4. Go ahead kick my ass.

I dares ya.

[Iggo]

9. I didn't before. But I do now.

Yee-ikes!

[lost-in-nj]

5. there are no secrets in my family

both of brothers were gay.....
my younger brother died in 1992 of aids
because he had a blood transfusion when he had his spleen removed......


my older brother had some sort of brain thing in 2002
and died


no problems....

lost

[Locut0s]

6. I'm sorry to hear about that. Horribly way to loose a family member...

my heart goes out to you.

[skygazer]

7. My family doesn't talk about anything

Hell, my mom died 35 years ago and I only talked about it for the first time with my sisters last year. And both of them were uncomfortable.

Now, my kids are extremely open with me. They have always talked to me about just about anything for which I am very grateful and for which I worked hard. I never wanted them to have the same type of dysfunction my siblings and I have with our father though I'm sure they have their own dysfunctions.

[phasma ex machina]

8. My family arguably ranks as the openest of all open families. No Secrets. Far too much information.

All desperately need to reel it back in post haste.

[Locut0s]

10. Care to elaborate? TMI how?

[phasma ex machina]

13. What begins intimate ought to stay intimate. nt

[pitohui]

21. thank you phasma!

someone gets it!

as a teen i really didn't need to know abt my mom's birth control issues or her drug experiments, nor did i need to know abt how much my dad would offer to pay a younger woman to do whatever...the things i learned by chance were bad enough, i dread to think what i would have been hit w. if they'd been open and revealing! yuck!!!

[fishwax]

11. not open at all, unfortunately

[Dave Reynolds]

12. Not.

They already disapprove of my living arrangements, so I don't add to it.

[Bertha Venation]

14. Completely, but not with the 'rents. They're both dead, but if they weren't

I wouldn't talk to them.

My sisters and I are free and open with each other, and we have no secrets.

[Iggo]

15. Almost completely.

There's a couple few secrets I'm taking to my grave, and I'm sure my sibs have their own. (Me and the sibs are all between 40 and 50.) But sexuality, dating, drug-use? Those are all out on the table. I'll tell my parents anything they ask about. Sometimes I only tell it the once...lol.

With the kids I've been an open book since they were babies, so as far as I know they have no problem talking to me about anything, and vice versa...except for those couple of secrets.

[NJmaverick]

16. Not very open

I am some what close to my brother, but that's it.

[pitohui]

17. it's easy for you to be open if you're having no/vanilla sex and no drugs

it's easy to be open when you're 27 and doing not a thing that anyone could find in the slightest bit controversial


trust me, it just works better if we all pretend we don't know this stuff

IMHO being open is no virtue when it comes to sex and drugs, privacy is a little known virtue tho i realize the entire concept of privacy/private life does not exist for kids much under age 30 but oh well, if you want to bring the whole world to bed with you i guess whatever floats your boat!

i suppose if my parents know (or want to know) that i'm very far outside the norm, then they do know, but again why should we talk abt this stuff? i'm not going to change my activities, nor are they going to change their activities, so it would be a lot of hurt and giving of offense and "how can you embarrass the family like that" all to no purpose

i know stuff abt my dad's sex life he doesn't know i know (or at least i hope he doesn't know i know) but again, why should i run over and say "um, your little girlfriend blabbed that you paid her for this and that activity" -- they're adults, it's their problem

yeah it's easy for me to be open about drug use because i don't use any, but if i was a drug user (or if another family member was), they should either shut the fuck up to protect everybody else from their illegal activities or get their ass into rehab -- don't be "open" and drag another person into knowledge of a crime -- i do not associate w. known drug users, if i find out you're using, you're out of my life, so i guess if anyone is using (they sure don't seem like it) they're not gonna tell me...let's keep it that way, kthanks

[elehhhhna]

18. the gals are 13 & 16 and thank jah, VERY open.

[Odin2005]

19. My parents were very open when I was in my teens.

[pitohui]

20. they must have been some OLD parents

my parents were at their sexual peak when i was in my teens, thank god they weren't open, the stuff i heard by accident behind the barn was more than i needed to know!!!

my parents don't need to be in my head or in my bed, and they sure as hell didn't need to be there when i was a teen-ager, that's just perverted and sick, sorry

[Odin2005]

23. DOH, I think I misunderstood the question.

I was thinking "birds and the bees", not the actual act. :banghead:

[Locut0s]

25. No you were right the first time....

I wasn't talking about talking to your parents about details of your sex life. I was talking more about talking ABOUT sex as in anything up to and including:

"Yeah my and Jenifer are getting along really well. The sex is amazing for one"

But nothing more than that and usually much less than that. Certainly nothing like favourite sexual position or anything specific.

[Mutley]

24. I can talk to my parents about general things.

But I don't usually talk to them about personal things. They are very judgmental.

[Inchworm]

26. My daughter and I...

talk about all. I'm so lucky.

The latest topic was why don't babies latch on to boobies... I mean hec, that's what nipples are for right.. where did it get lost? :P

:hi:

[Locut0s]

27. That's an interesting topic actually. One would need to know if other....

primates are the same. Do chimpanzees do it instinctually? If so we need to look farther down the primate lineage to the point where we do see it being done instinctually. If chimps do do it then it was lost somewhere in the last 7 to 8 million years of evolution as our genus (Homo) branched away with chimps (Pan).