Random Thoughts: The Even More Too Much Information Edition

Yet another reason my blogging has fallen off: My dad reads my blog.

As of late, there’s some sexual politics news out there that I would like to dissect and discuss, there’s that new book about women and sexuality that I do plan to review, and, basically, I want to have some conversations about sex. Which would involve my sex life. Which is not, generally, something you talk with your dad about.

So, disclaimers? I’ve done them in the past, the “Dad don’t read this post” notice. I don’t know if my father proceeds to read those posts, and if he does… well, I’ve done my part, right?

Plus, there’s this: The way I talk or may talk about sex, sexual politics, sexuality, it may not line up with the whole Catholic church thing.

I’ve declaimed this before. I’m not a fantastic Catholic. I have strayed very far outside the Catholic teachings about sex in general. I even recently had a conversation about the church’s teaching on homosexuality that showed what a heretic I really am.

Short version: The Catholic church doesn’t hate homosexuals, and doesn’t teach that homosexuality is a sin. As with all sexual things, the Catholic church teaches sex only within marriage, and marriage is only between one man and one woman. So far, so good. I go off the rails right about here: What the church actually teaches about sex may not be what God actually feels (if God could be said to feel, per se) about sex. We humans don’t really know what God feels (per se) about *anything*, although yes, we have the Bible to guide us. Of course, the downward spiral of this conversation is: humans wrote the Bible, and a lot of guy humans actually decided what went in the Bible, and now my feminist sensibilities and my Catholic sensibilities are getting a little riled with each other.

At this point, I should probably go to confession, right?

Of course, too, there’s the whole teaching my children thing, which is going to possibly require a lot of toeing the line and/or cognitive dissonance. Or, depending on your point of view, outright hypocrisy. I’ve been here before. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

All three of my children will receive the same basic message: Sex is for marriage. Sex is a good thing, a gift from God, reserved for (again) the sacrament of marriage.

After that message, comes… what exactly?

Look, my parents didn’t talk to me about sex. And there’s nothing that can be done about that at this point. I know what the result of that was for me (and I’m not quite prepared to spill right now, I’m still struggling with this “talk about sex but my dad reads my blog” thing).

I’ve been pretty open with my children about their bodies so far. And I know I have to talk to them about sex and sexuality, in little doses as they get older, in age appropriate ways. And honestly.

And that’s all I got for today.

Do your parents read your blog? And does it freak you out or not?