When Your Boy Reaches Puberty

The following excerpts are from Chapter 2 of The Manual of Hygiene - Father and Son by M.A. Horn.

When Your Boy Reaches Puberty

During this period there will be marked physical changes also, changes in the body are taking place that eventually make the boy a man. Hair will begin to grow upon his face and you'll likely find your razor tampered with.

(I would SO hate to have been the father of a 13-year old MacGyver.)

Teach him the value of continence - which is the abstaining from sexual relationships until after he is married - ask him to take an interest in sports and outdoor activities which will help him to work off his energy and take his mind off his body.

(Because there's nothing on the football field that will affect a pubescent boy at all... and jocks are so virtuous and chaste they're practically clichés)

Too often the professional prostitute is the answer to a young boy's sex problem and since there are always plenty of them about to prey upon these adolescent youths, you must impress upon him the dangers to his mental health which may result from physical contact with women of the streets.

(Again with the prostitutes? Does anyone get the feeling Mr. Horn has a thing against these ladies? And was the weekly allowance given to boys in the 40s so great that they ran out to the nearest street corner, which was always practically overflowing the curb with a wide array of women forcing their wares upon passersby?)

In warning him of the professional prostitute, do not overlook the dangers presented by the "amateur",- the girl in his own set who is free with her body. Such a girl is more likely to have given herself to other boys and herein lies one of the greatest sources of venereal infection.

(Okay, I know it was a whole chapter ago (three pages, really), but we really don't want you to focus so much on the the professionals that you forget about those filthy, filthy teenage girls... Oh, and speaking of whor- I mean, whom...)

Girls, too, act differently when adolescence approaches. Most of them begin to crave admiration and also develop a desire to dominate the men of the family and of their personal acquaintance. She will become very vain and the greatest portion of her thoughts will be concerned with love and with things romantic. She will become extremely sensitive about how she looks - her skin, her hair, her clothes. There is a grave danger that she will fall in love with the first man she meets who shows her the slightest attention - often it will be an older person, a school professor perhaps, or an actor, or even the man next door.

(If you live next door to a drama teacher pack up and move immediately!)