My 12 year old son came to me (dad) really embarrassed yesterday and said he wet the bed. I said okay and that we could strip the bed and put it in the washing machine. It didn’t look like a pee spot to me though so I asked “you sure you peed?”

He starts crying a little bit and says “no this white stuff came out.” Oh boy. We’ve had a version of “the talk” but I kept it high level and did not cover wet dreams. I asked him if he knew what it was and he said “the stuff to make babies with I guess. I forget the word.” I said yeah but went into detail more about wet dreams and things with proper terminology.

He says “I just want it to stop. It’s like hard all the time and I can’t get it to go away and it’s so annoying and now I’m making this mess which is gross and I just want it all to stop I hate it.” He’s still partially crying.

I say “have you ever heard of [the m word]?” He says “I don’t know. Like kinda.” I say “well some people find touching or rubbing themselves down there feels really good and it can help relieve some tension and may make wet dreams less frequent since the stuff comes out another way. But everyone is different. It’s normal and safe in moderation. But it is a private activity. You should keep it to yourself.”

He said “I like kinda did that but nothing came out. Maybe I can try again.” I just said that was a private decision and up to him. I’ve never cringed so hard in my life but I tried to stay calm.

Today he comes to me and says “sorry about yesterday. Thanks for not freaking out on me. I guess I should’ve known all that.” I told him he had nothing to be sorry about and he was fine. He said “can we pretend that like that never happened?” I chuckled and said sure. He gave me a quick hug and ran away.