Hi guys I’m just looking to see if anyone knows if this is a normal part of childhood development or if anyone experienced this as a kid: Is pretend sexual play normal in kids? Like me and my friends would pretend to be mom and dad and or we would make our bratz dolls kiss or make babies or basically playing games with children my own age that involve sexual behavior. I’m extremely distressed by this right now because I am a little concerned this wasn’t a normal part of childhood development. Mind you I’m now in my 20s so I have no idea why this is coming up into my mind as an OCD theme at the moment lol. Also to preface, Growing up I was always around older kids too so I knew a lot about mature topics before a lot of my peers because my friends at the time that i was around were 3-4 years older than me!

Me too I’m literally trying to watch a movie with my friend and this RANDOMLY popped into my head and now I’m anxious... seriously annoys me I can’t even do simple tasks lol

@samden Ugh I hate that I was driving to work the other day and randomly started thinking about it and it made me so anxious like ill go from being a detective and googling these things to then feeling extreme distress in the inside so just know I know how your feeling :)

@nerdle Yes 100%! Same here that’s why I have Pure O bc I don’t have physical compulsions it’s always just researching stuff lol

@samden Ya minds definantly mainly mental and like I started even researching what's appropriate for a child doctor even thought I'm pretty sure they were normal kid physical check but I even like when to this doctor's reviews and were checking just in case someone said he was inappropriate like its not funny but I have to have a sense of humor about this sometimes like ok I'm like trying to be a detective without clear facts right now

Def not trying to reassurance seek! Moreso just looking to see if anyone has more info on this subject. I didn’t take much psychology and I’m pretty sure my therapist told me not to think abt things that I did as a kid with other OCD themes but I can’t exactly remember. Def just kinda annoyed this is coming up now bc that was literally like 13 or so years ago lol

@samden I'm 31 and for some reason around 25 I started obsessing over actions I did as a kid some sexual and started worrying was that normal or did I have a traumatic experience and have no memory of it ? Or why'd i do that I also thought I was very alone in this like one time I played doctor with a friend as a kid and stuff like that where it would lead to a sexual nature

@nerdle Yeah I definitely have heard before that it’s a normal part of childhood development, but I don’t know exact details about it. I also wondered the same thing and also wondered if I made the other kids uncomfortable by doing these things even though nothing was physically occurring at least with what I can remember doing! Super strange but no you’re definitely not alone! I just think I was exposed by the older ppl I was around at a muchhhh younger age than typical for kids so that likely contributed

@samden Yes I remember being around my cousins who were six years older then I was a lot as a little kid I definitely could of picked up curiosities from that or from t.v. I wasn't censored that much as a kid with the tv and I didn't seem like I was a copy cat in that way to my parents but I think I definitely did know more things at that age