When my son was young (4 or 5), my wife found him sitting on the family room floor flipping through a Victoria Secret catalog he had found. That was quite a shock for her. He was so young. I am not a doctor or psychologist, but I don’t think he was thinking sexual thoughts at that time. He didn’t even know what sex was. But something drew him to look at that catalog. It’s not like it was the only one he had to choose from. My wife has a basket in our family room filled with all types of catalogs and he chose that one. He didn’t want to peruse the furniture catalogs or the book catalogs or even the toy catalogs. He chose the Victoria Secret catalog. Maybe because he thought the girls were pretty. Maybe he’d never seen “clothes” like that before. My wife learned a valuable lesson that day. Don’t leave lingerie catalogs out where young hands can get access to them.
Keeping your kids from seeing women in lingerie is kind of like keeping them from seeing the sun. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is a lot of truth there. Lingerie ads are everywhere: TV, Web, Catalogs, Billboards, the Mall. Your kids can run into them without warning. I was walking through the mall with my son and on our way to a store we had to walk past the Victoria Secret store. Their windows display ads are so big it’s hard not to see them. So I thought it was a good time for a chat about what he’d seen and how he should handle it. I told him that often you can’t help the first look at something like that. It just pops up on you. But you can help if you look a second time and you can help what you do with those images once they’re in your mind. Your mind is where an image can turn into lust, and stopping yourself from dwelling on the image can keep you from going there. A second look at a lingerie ad, or a long first look, can grease the skids that lead to lust.
So parents be aware of what things you may have in your home that could expose your kids to lingerie ads. It could be a Victoria Secret catalog, but I think her secret is out because the Sears catalog has lingerie ads also. TV is another source. The later in the evening the racier the ads can get. So be aware of how they may be exposed. But most importantly know they are going to see them. If you drive down a highway chances are you’ll encounter a scantily clad women on a billboard at some point and you can’t swerve off the road to avoid it. So talk to you kids about it. Talk to them about not looking twice, and explain how dwelling on the image can lead to lust. You’ll teach them a good habit that will serve them well into adulthood. I can’t say I know many wives who enjoy it when their husband drools all over their Victoria Secret catalog.