Hertoft gives some quotes which show the understandable variety in the reactions of younger and older boys:
Rainer at the age of 10 was hidden by his 13-year-old sister behind the curtains so he could see how she behaved with an adult sub-tenant. "Then she opened his fly and pulled out his thing. It was so gigantic and red - I'd never seen one before. I got so excited I had to look away. And when I looked back again, my sister jumped off his lap and threw of her clothes - and Mr. J. did the same thing. Then he fell down on my sister, and I saw his enormous thing again. It was so long and thick I couldn't believe my sister would be able to insert it into herself. But she did, and it went all the way in."
A man about thirty was having an affair with a divorcee, Ilse, mother of nine-year-old Myriam. "Thursday night Ilse and I were lying on the bed, both naked, in love-play, and Myriam looked on, radiant. I had just shown Ilse a newspaper article advising people not to have sex if there were also children in their beds. In my opinion it would be far better to advise parents not to fight in the presence of children. Ilse agreed completely. We were caressing each other; we went further and further, and this finally led to a most delicious fucking. Little Myriam was thrilled. "Is it nice, mommy?" she wanted to know, when Ilse started to moan. She enjoyed it with us with all her little body. When I put my hand out to her she gripped it firmly, as if she wanted to help me, assist us. She wanted to participate and actively contribute to our sexual pleasure. Her touch, the way she gripped me, excited me so much that I immediately had the most wonderful orgasm. That child sympathised and participated in our joy."
An 11-year-old boy became a foster son of a young couple, and a few weeks later he was quite intimate with his new father. Out walking together one day, the father asked the boy whether he had had any sexual education. The boy hadn't, and the father gave him the most important information. But in so doing he didn't talk about some abstract man and woman; he told how he did it with his wife and what a wonderful pleasure it was for both of them. Finally he asked the boy, "Would you like to see it happen?" The boy nodded eagerly. Back home, they asked the mother and she agreed. That night the three showered together, which allowed the boy to familarise himself with their bodies. They let him touch their genitals, inspect them closely. They then went to the bedroom where the young couple united themselves in intercourse with the boy looking on. Many years later the boy, now a young man, said, "That introduction to sexuality was beautiful and unforgettable. I'll be grateful all the rest of my life to my foster parents for this."
A fourteen-year-old Austrian schoolboy told a teacher, who was discussing sex with him, "Over vacation I was staying with my parents in a hotel. One day I went into the wrong room by mistake, and there on the bed were a man and a woman fucking. They laughed at my surprise and invited me to stay and watch. I did, since I was very curious. I found it really lewd!"
Mrs. Rouweler-Wutz told about a family she knew. The children, then 11 and 14, had been familar from infancy on with naked bodies, erections and sex play. They were very affectionate children, but not, interestingly enough, at all "sexualised".
The Dutch philosopher Fons Elders brought up his three sons this way. They passed through puberty without the usual problems, were allowed to sleep with a boy-friend or a girl-friend when they wanted it. They were used to nudity and witnessed their parent's intercourse. But nothing was forced on them; they were not urged to participate in anything. Adults themselves now, the three sons have no difficulty discussing their sexual lives quite openly. One of their wives says her husband is much better at making love than any other boy she had met. Talking about sex, he claims, isn't enough; you must have experience, and this always comes as a shock: the first time you have an ejaculation while masturbating, your first intercourse, when it hurts. And the sons agree that they will bring up their children in the same way, making no problems about sex. (Viva, 16 Aug 1985)