Openness (On Puberty)

I was home for a week.  It was supposed to be just a visa exit, spending an overnight outside of Dhaka.  I planned to go to Kathmandu but it did not worked out.  Then, it also turned out that I had to extend here till December.  And my passport's validity is until August only.  So I had to rush home and apply for a renewal.

It was a short 6-day bliss with the kids.  And more often than not, even if I have to go on an errand, we are all together, the children, tagging along, even Kuya Rod who, lately had to take a lot of convincing (and me resorting to drama) before he agrees to come.  Well, there was an instance wherein he asked to stay at home which was fine.

Anyway, I am digressing again. (I so love to establish context so I can remember down the line whenever my memory would desert me. I hope that won't happen soon!).

So, we were in a restaurant where Forest and I were seated across Rod and Tatay. I had a good look at Rod then and noticed the tell-tale signs of a mustache.  I remarked, "Binata ka na talaga, Kuya.  May bigote ka na." (You really are all grown-up now Kuya.  You have a mustache).

Out of curiosity I asked nonchalantly, "Do you have some, "there" already?" I have to mouthed the words as we were in a public place.  I was quite prepared for him to shut me down and throw a glare my way but he answered without missing a beat, "Yes, some. Konti. (a little)."

I was taken aback by his candidness but sure was happy as well that he trusted me well enough.  I guess it helped that I did not make so much fuss out of it.  I was aiming for that.  I do not want them to be so body conscious. I grew up that way.  It's so paralyzing in so many ways.  At the same time, I want them to be wary about whom to trust.

I've been telling Rod many times in the past that he comes to me if he had questions related to sex.  I told him not to go to peers as they could be as clueless about it and would only give him not good enough information or worse, misinformation!  He had said, "yes, yes" but I couldn't really tell if he was serious about it or is just trying to shut me down.

Now it feels good to have him totally opened up to me about things like this.  It is telling me he trusts me and is willing to be open to me on such things.

Now I'm remembering a particular incident last week where Rod was toying with his phone when out of a blue, a sound akin to a women climaxing blared out of his phone.  I was shocked and said right away, "What is that, Kuya?!"

Rod, in response was laughing so hard.  He said it was his classmate sending him a clickbait.  He showed me a link in his messenger showing a frozen video of a person hitting another.  Once he hit the play button, the sound came.  He was laughing while showing me the comments and how angry the others were and commenting the same. 

I reminded him I trust him and that he better not abuse that trust.