Mom hits ceiling over son’s porn

Dear Diane: I am at my wits’ end! I am a single mother, trying to raise a 13-year-old son, “Kyle.” Yesterday I was stripping the beds, and when I flipped over Kyle’s mattress I found a magazine. Yes, one of THOSE magazines.

I had never looked through one before, so I opened it. I was shocked at what I saw! I can’t believe there are women out there who would pose for pictures as vulgar as the ones I saw in this magazine.

And what has really gotten me upset is that my son — my baby — is reading this filth. Where did he get it? Why would he even want to look at it?

I haven’t approached my son yet. I am so livid. What should I do?

— Disgusted in Dubois

Dear Disgusted: Calm down, dear. You’re not the first mother to find a dirty book or magazine in her teenage son’s bedroom.

What Kyle is doing is perfectly normal. He’s beginning puberty and starting to become very curious about sex — and the opposite sex. Almost every young man — and many grown men, for that matter — possess a stash of these kinds of materials. I don’t understand the attraction. It’s a guy thing, I suppose. And if it makes you feel any better, I find these kinds of books and magazines vulgar and disgusting, too.

That said, if I were you, I wouldn’t be too angry with Kyle. He is, after all, just curious. Let him know, in as calm a voice as you can muster, that magazines like the one you found are not allowed in your house.

Also tell him that these magazines do not portray women as they are in real life. And that the sex acts they portray only occur in porno magazines, not in real relationships in the real world.

Above all, let your son know that you love him, and that he shouldn’t be ashamed of being curious about sex. And if he has any questions, he shouldn’t be afraid to come to you for guidance.