When their children reach puberty and have strong feelings and instinctive behavior, parents wonder why their children can't cope responsibly. If society enhanced, rather than squashed, natural learning processes, it might become typical for youth to be mentally and emotionally ready when their bodies were ready. If children mature naturally to the age of puberty, perhaps they will face less problems. We cannot change their instinctual growth urges. However, instead of interfering with those urges, we can offer encouragement and guidance.
All species have an age of puberty at which they typically become sexually active.
During those critical formative years between birth and puberty, if children have been sexually uneducated, unsupported, misunderstood and repressed, problems arise. At that point, it does not matter whether or not parents or society feel they had good, practical reasons for this lack. Adults, on the other hand, out of fear, embarrassment or a misplaced sense of duty, immediately squash youngsters' innocent curiosity and intense pleasure. This is a time when parents could be taking advantage of these precious years and children's natural behavior to teach wholesome attitudes such as not being sexually abusive, obsessive or possessive, and being okay with integrating sexual feelings toward either gender. This is a time when children could be learning intellectually, emotionally and experientially how to integrate their sexual feelings into their overall understanding of the world and how they are beginning to fit into society.