When you were a kid, how did you learn the difference between circumcised and non-circumcised boys?

Panda Man: I can relate to that — I was the first uncircumcised male my wife had seen (well I guess she may have seen diagrams or maybe photographs, but I mean in the flesh). And our son was the first uncircumcised male that my mother in law had seen. She knew about circumcision but seemed to assume that it was done in all civilized places. She asked why we had not done it — surely it's better, it's what everybody does, don't they? or at least in the United States (and everybody knows that whatever is done is the US is probably best)? But she understood that it was more custom than real medical interest.

For the people who asked...the explanation I was given was that I had some health complications / issues at birth (maybe premature? not sure) and it couldn't be done, but my penis would be fine as long as I kept it clean. However I suspect it may also have been a financial issue - my mom was a single mom and money was always extremely tight growing up, so maybe she just couldn't afford it and was too proud to tell me that.

Anyway, she told me I could have it done if I wanted, but that it would probably hurt a lot. We discussed it with the pediatrician the next time I was there, but she said she didn't recommend it at my age unless there was an actual medical need. I did have some resentment for a while for not having had it done at birth, since it was much more involved surgery now; and the irony there is that I actually did have a sort-of condition (phimosis) until I was 19, but it was not diagnosed - I had to figure it for myself with the help of a nice lady in college. I suspect the pediatrician really didn't know too much about the intact penis.

Visual observation -- eyesight

I vaguely remember playing doctor when I was about five, but no details and I certainly have no memory of anyone else's penis. When I was nine, however, I was sent to a boarding school (boys only), and at once experienced communal showers, toilets, etc. South Africa is unlike either England or America - the ratio of cut to uncut penises would be about 3:1. So that's when I learnt that some penises (we called them 'toads') don't look like mine (uncut, or 'worm'). It was not a matter for much comment from the uncut side, though the cut boys were curious to see what they no longer had!

I thought no more of it until masturbation became a consuming interest hobby? passion?). I then became aware, from masturbating with friends, both cut and uncut, that for the cut guys, masturbation wasn't nearly as easy as for me - they had no loose foreskin to slide over their shafts like I did.

Johnny

Honestly I was around 10 or 11 when my cousin a year younger had to have circucision due to a medical issue. And we were taking a bath together. I never knew that part could be cut off. Oh the innocence of childhood.

I had a cousin that wasn't circumcised we spent a lot of time togather as he was the same age as me, so I can't remember a time when I didn't know the difference as I was circumcised birth.

The year that I first saw an uncircumcised penis was also the first year that I handled one. The first sighting was one guy in my seventh grade gym class when the class was changing and then showering. I had heard of circumcision but did not know what an uncircumcised penis looked like. When I saw that kid I put it together. I was already attracted to guys by that age, twelve, and really liked seeing the penises of guys I thought were cute.

I really did not understand that all of the ones I had seen were circumcised until I saw what an uncircumcised penis looked like. I knew immediately that I preferred the appearance of the circumcised penis and thought it was hot that each of us had had a procedure done to permanently expose the head of the penis and to leave behind a scar as a reminder that a clamp had been applied to create this look.

During this same year, a boy in my class that I had known for a few years decided to show each other our penises. I was an athlete and hung out with the socially cool people so no one would have ever thought I was gay but I had spotted Tom as guy from the time we were in the fifth grade. We were at his house after school one day and no one else was there. We agreed to take our pants and underwear down and take a look at each other's penis.

Surprisingly, he had an intact foreskin. He wanted to handle my penis and I was excited to handle his as well. I retracted the foreskin and found a very dark purple, shiny glans with a good deal of smegma on it. He was anxious to masturbate me but did not want me to reciprocate, which was fine with me since I found the odor a little off putting. He really liked jerking me off and asked me to come over regularly after that for a hand job every time.

We also discovered that we went to the same pediatrician so we shared our experiences having exams. He demonstrated the details of how our doctor examined his penis, retracting the foreskin to check that it was not tight and that the glans was healthy. He confirmed that he showered and cleaned the glans before his appointments. We did a lot of exams on each other but, sadly, his family moved away after about another year.

When I was 11, I was playing "if you show me yours, I'll show you mine" with a friend. We were both shocked at the "different models" of our penises (I was uncut, he was)! We didn't know about circumcision then so we both thought that the penis grew and developed differently in various boys. I had seen other penises from 2 other friends before and they were both uncircumcised so this time was a complete shock!

Reminds me of the Flip Wilson routine about the young boy and girl taking a bath together...

Girl: "What's that?"

Boy: "Where?"

Girl: "Right there."

Boy: "I dunno."

Girl: "Can I touch it?"

Boy: "Heck no! You already broke yours off !!"

At the age of nine I became very aware of the difference when I was circumcised.

God I was so young - about 3 or 4 years old. My mother was friends with another lady who had twin sons a year younger than I was and we used to play in the garden together when they'd come to visit.

One day they both decided they needed to pee so they dropped their pants to their ankles (as young boys do!) and peed into the bushes along our fence. I must have decided I should probably pee too and as I stood next to them they started seeing who could pee higher. I saw their circumcised penises and thought "Wow - how interesting". And then proceeded to pee sideways all over one of them (I hadn't learnt to pull my foreskin back by that stage and peeing straight was usually a matter of luck).

Once they were gone I asked my mother why they had different looking penises and she explained that circumcision was done on boys whose foreskins were so tight they weren't able to pee properly.

Then I went to kindergarten and was amazed that I was the only person there who never had a pee problem that needed surgical correction.

Then I went to junior school and started thinking 'Has the entire world been suffering this problem with peeing?" No-one had an uncircumcised penis like mine. This was mid 80's Australia. Even in my naivety, I soon realised my mother hadn't been 100% honest with me. No way was it possible that I and I alone had grown up with a normal functioning penis (that could still pee sideways if I wasn't careful and hadn't pulled my skin back).

.Then I went to junior school and started thinking 'Has the entire world been suffering this problem with peeing?"

No offense, but that is utterly hilarious ... ha ha.

Besides, by junior high, you must certainly have figured out and experienced first-hand, that people and grown-ups especially, lie their heads off about stuff all the time, and for the stupidest of reasons ...

Agracier - I should have been clearer - sorry. I meant to say primary school but I wasn't sure if our US friends would know what I was talking about. Age 6-12 is what I meant.

I'd certainly understood things differently by the time I was in junior high!

It's the same here. Primary school is elementary school and secondary school is high school.

Like Snoman I found out by looking at other boys peeing and yeah I used to spray everywhere. No one told me about pulling my foreskin back. And yes I too had a few embarrassing moments at the urinal spraying over guys.

When I went swimming at the YMCA at about age 6, I first witnessed the diversity of men's and boys penises.

The question reads "When you were a kid....". I grew up in Scotland and literally never once saw a circumcised penis. Of course there were few opportunities to see other boys, or men, no communal showers, and no undressing in school or in sports. So I certainly wasn't a kid when I became aware of cut penises. You would catch a glimpse when peeing, maybe, and as I said everyone was intact. I never had a "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" moment with a friend.

It was probably in my late teens, then living in North America, that I started seeing the almost universal appearance of cut cocks, mostly in porn, but also being in showers, locker rooms, and just traveling with other men.

Well when I was a girl growing up in school I just heard the word "circumcised" and I knew it meant a penis had an operation on it to take a bit off and alter it but I did not really know what difference it made. I never saw a penis until I was 16 and I went to bed with my husband so I just found out then how it worked, how his foreskin retracted and showed his glans and all that. I tried to imagine what circumcised ones looked like. I think I was about 19 or 20 when we were on a beach in Spain that I saw some nudists and at last I saw some other willies, not too many though and just a few circumcised ones. I tried not to stare! Hahaha

Opposite of ibrox...growing up never once saw, or at least noticed, an uncut penis. Only thing I heard about were anteater or turtle or smegma jokes that I only partly understood. Shocked when I first actually started seeing the variation in foreskins. Remember once talking to a guy who said he moved from Ireland and he had the longest overhang (whatever you uncut guys like to call it) on an average sized flaccid penis I had ever seen.

I knew the difference from a very early age, as my father is circumcised, but neither I nor my brothers were. From the age of 11 on, there were compulsory naked showers after PE/sport three times a week, so I knew what I was looking at when the circumcised ones appeared. (This the UK in the late 60s - there were six in my class of 30.)

When I flipped through the family medical guide and saw line drawings depicting the difference between a circumcised and an uncircumcised penis. Because showers weren't required, I had no idea as to how common it was to be uncut. (I'm guessing not very as I live in the US--as an adult, it was very rare to encounter an uncircumcised man.) I was very curious about the differences and started reading through circlist.com to look at the differences in circumcision styles and to get a first look at men with foreskin. I was totally fascinated by the guys who had a lot of overhang.

The first time I saw an uncircumcised penis was in the change room in Junior High. One boy in my P.E. class who was about 2 years older than me often showed off his very long erect penis. It seemed about 12 inches long but some of that was his long foreskin.

It had to be when I was 3 or a little before. I'm intact, and I first noticed my dad's penis looked different from mine and I was curious as to why. Sometime after I was potty trained, my best friend next door started to get me to go pee in the toilet with him at the same time. I noticed that his penis looked just like my dad's, and I became a little more confused. He was curious about my penis too, and felt the tip of my peep a few times (it didn't bother me). I only got to feel his penis once, when he got off the potty after going poop, I felt the edge of his glans, he immediately snapped his knees closed giggling and said "that tickles!"; it kinda scared me a bit, so I didn't wanna do that again.

Then when I started going to preschool where there were 3 open potties in a row and all the kids went with no privacy, I saw that all of the boys except me and two other boys (14 out of 17 boys, and there were 26 kids in the group, different child to adult ratios back then) were circumcised. I did feel a bit left out, even more considering that those two other boys were not there the whole school year like I was. One of the circumcised boys stood next to me while I was peeing, pointed at my penis and said "hey, you don't have one of those things around", he was referring to the ring of residual foreskin at the base of the glans that you often see in little circumcised boys.

I finally asked my parents about it, and they had the talk with me. Learning to "skin it back" was so cool though, and I couldn't wait to show my best friend my "new trick", and he was excited to see it too saying "you can make your peep look like mine, that's so cool, come on lets go peepee". So from a young age, I could see that there was a difference. However, now that I'm grown, I've learned to embrace my intact penis, and also considering it's being done less and less in this country, I have no doubt in my mind that I will not be circumcising any of my future sons.

I remember when I first noticed the difference between circumsized and uncircumsized dicks. I would always have to take showers after gym in 7th grade and me being uncircumcised had noticed that some kids had different looking ones then me. I was bi at this point and I liked the circumcised ones better. There was this boy I liked named Bradley. He was circumsized. One day after school he came over and I stared the conversation to sex. We both agreed to show each others penis'. His was magnificent. It was soft and the gland was beautiful. I began to put my lips around it and he moaned from how good it felt. We had official become below job buddies. I would even give him blowjobs in school in the bathroom. Unfortunately he moved a few months later.

I would even give him blowjobs in school in the bathroom. Unfortunately he moved a few months later.

Did you swallow his semen?

He could not produce yet.

He could not produce yet.

Then what was the end point of the blow job?

He still was able to orgasm.

I don't think I had any ejaculate until eighth grade, for another data point. But this is steering dangerously off topic...

Like most guys, I learned in the bathrooms at school. I'm honestly surprised little boys didn't ask why I was different. Which leads to two very different stories.

Story #1: This was at a now defunct movie theater; don't even remember what movie I was seeing. Anyhow, I had to pee, so I go in & get a urinal. These were the kind without any sort of barriers. Well, it was my lucky day - in the most sarcastic, and unlucky way possible. This little kid gets the kids' urinal right next to me... had no idea before then which he would happen to choose. So I'm standing there trying to pee, ending up looking like I'm trying to pass a friggin' kidney stone, listening to this kid pull his jeans & underwear to the floor. While I'm still trying to pee, I hear from my right 'hey.... what's that??!!??'. I freeze... even more than I already was. It's worth noting that sometimes I skin back a little to pee, other times I just keep my glans covered. This was one of those covered times. Before I'd went in, I saw some woman standing outside that I rightly guessed to be his mom - you'll see in a minute where this is going.... very embarrassing!! - and I wasn't about to explain my foreskin to this kid, at barrier-less urinals, with his mom right outside.

So this kid washes his hands, with me still trying to pee... which I finally was able to do, but not before he goes out and I hear him tell God, his mom, and the ENTIRE LOBBY: 'HEY MOOOOM, THERE'S A MAN IN THE BATHROOM WITH SKIN ALL OVER THE END OF HIS THING!!!!!!!' Dear lord, was that embarrassing. And just that part. Now most people should guess 'oh, ok... it's the guys bathroom.... sometimes you just see a penis here and there'.... but at the same time, I can only imagine what was going through this poor woman's mind.... all because of a simple question from her son.... that because I was freaked out by her presence right outside the door, I was unwilling - scared shitless, frankly- to even answer. I kid you not, right now as I type this I'm fucking shaking like a leaf. Because of all the ways society misconstrues most things.

Anyhow, I finally pee, wash up, and go back to try and enjoy my movie. Well, that wasn't happening. I get back to my seat, and who do I see, but this kid and his mom, right up front, one seated and one standing in the aisle talking to each other and looking back at me. Which freaked me out even more... rather than coming back to me, us all going outside the door and talking about it, just to put each other's mind at ease. As time went on, I literally felt like I was going to throw up. So I couldn't even stay for the movie. Got to the car and drove off... if memory serves, I ended up having to pull over and throw up. All that to say this: if parents would just explain to their kids this one simple anatomical difference, why some are intact and others are circumcised, there'd be a whole hell of a lot less freaking out going on for everyone.

And now, story #2: I was at a restaurant when I had to pee. As I get up, I see this little boy headed to the bathroom too. He just smiled at me as he held the door for me. The way this bathroom is, the tall guys urinal is right next to the stall door. He goes in the stall, closes the door, and I hear him start to pee. I'm at the urinal right there next to the door and I start to pee. This was another time where I just kept my glans covered. He opens the door right as I'm finishing up, and he happens to look at my penis. Right when his eyes saw it, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree... just smiled and smiled and smiled!!!!! Neither of us said a single word, he just washed up, dried hands and went out... then I did the same. So for the first time in my LIFE, that made me feel wonderful, being a white guy with an intact foreskin, and having SOMEONE acknowledge.... that I'm not the only white guy who's intact. It just made me feel great for the rest of the day... all bright and shiny, inside and out!!!