Recently I have had occasion to teach my nephew about masturbation. He's 13, his mom's divorced, and his dad, while not out of the picture, isn't the kind of guy who is comfortable talking to his son about, well, anything, much less sex.
A few weeks ago, we were running some errands together and talking about school, and he said that something really embarrassing had happened to a friend of his. This kid was in math class and the teacher had called him up to work a problem on the board. While he was working, he popped an erection, and because he was wearing basketball shorts, everyone could see it.
That reminded me of a story from when I was in 7th grade. My best friend got called to work a problem and begged the teacher not to have to. Turns out he had gotten horny in class and decided to deal with it by masturbating through his pants. I guess he wasn't thinking about the natural result of that, but the evidence of his orgasm was apparent to anyone who could see the front of his khakis.
I told this story to my nephew, who couldn't believe that someone would do that. I said, "well, it's probably best not to masturbate at school. Just wait until you get home."
"Or don't do it at all," he said, rolling his eyes.
"Why not?" I asked. After all, he's plainly in puberty, so it was, I thought, a fair assumption that he was doing what most guys his age do.
"Why would you?"
"Because it feels awesome, for one thing. Are you saying you don't masturbate?"
"Nope, never have, and probably never will."
I let it lie and changed the subject.
A few days later, we were together again, working in my garage, and we were talking about medical tests for some reason. He mentioned the prostate exam and said he couldn't imagine what that was like. I've had a couple of them, so I said, "It really isn't that bad, just some pressure, and it doesn't take but a few seconds."
"Yeah, but why would you let a guy so that to you?"
"Because I don't want to get prostate cancer." Thinking back to our previous conversation, I said, "Of course, the best preventive for prostate cancer is masturbation."
He was incredulous, so I explained that cleaning out the contents of your prostate regularly is good for you, cancer-wise, and it's easiest to do it by masturbating. "In fact, there are like five different reasons that jerking off is good for you--stress relief, learning how your equipment works, satisfying your needs without risking pregnancy or STDs, avoiding wet dreams, and prostate health."
He thought about that for a while, then he asked, "Isn't it possible to break your ding-a-ling by masturbating?" I told him, "first of all, you're 13 now, so stop calling it your ding-a-ling. You can say penis, or if that's too formal, say dick or cock. Second, there is very little chance of breaking your dick by masturbating. If you're doing it and it hurts, stop what you're doing. I promise you, though, it's not gonna be like that for you. If it were common to break your dick masturbating, you'd see lots of your classmates being hospitalized all the time, because I guarantee you pretty much everybody in your class, boys and girls, is doing it pretty much every day."
After a while, he said, "So, if I wanted to masturbate... How..." He turned beet-red. "Are you asking me how to masturbate?" I asked him. He nodded.
"OK, no big deal. I can explain it to you. But I need to ask you a personal question: Are you circumcised?" He nodded. "OK, the basic technique is, lay down on your bed, pull your pants and underwear down, pull your shirt up a little, then you'll need an erection, which at your age shouldn't be a problem. So you wrap your hand around your cock, gripping sort of medium-firm, and slide it up and down your cock. Get a rhythm going, and pretty soon it'll feel like you're about to pee. Keep going, and you'll have an orgasm."
"Now, two things that you need to know. First, since you're circumcised, you might want to use something as a lubricant, like hand lotion or Vaseline. I can buy you some of that if you want.
"Second, when you have an orgasm... OK, another personal question. How long have you had pubic hair?"
"About six months, I guess."
"OK, when you have an orgasm, you're probably going to ejaculate, which means that semen will come out of your penis. Semen is also called 'cum.' It's sticky and has a tendency to stain fabric like sheets or your underwear, so you're going to want to clean it up with tissues. Sometimes it spurts out, and sometimes it just dribbles, but you can expect somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, and it will be whitish, or it might be sort of clear."
"How do I know how hard to rub?"
"Well, that's sort of something you have to learn by trial and error, just see what feels good. But"--I reached for a hammer, then gripped the handle like it was a penis--"just sort of like this." I made the motion and showed him how tight to grasp.
"Any questions?" He shook his head. "You going to try it tonight?" He got a grin on his face and nodded. I laughed. "I'm pretty sure you're going to think of it as your favorite toy, but when I see you tomorrow, if you have any questions, just let me know." I went to my bathroom and got him a new unopened travel bottle of hand lotion and a small box of tissues, and told them to stash them near his bed. He went back to his house because his mother was due home from work.
So the next day he came over to my house to play video games. "You know what we talked about yesterday?" he asked. I nodded.
"So, the lotion you gave me got really sticky, so I had to wash it off."
I was surprised, since that brand is my favorite lube, and it's never happened to me. "OK, well, maybe you need to use more of it, but don't worry, you'll get there."
He blushed. "I didn't say I didn't get there," he said, giggling.
"Oh, OK, great. So, was I right?"
"Hell yeah," he said, which is funny because he never curses. "I can't believe I waited so long to do it. I actually did it twice last night and again this morning."
I laughed. "Making up for lost time?" He smiled and gave me a hug.