ABSTRACT
Children imitate adults because it is the best way of learning, at least in the second year. It remains one of the most powerful ways until school age is reached. Parental influence is brought to bear first through the standard of behaviour the parents hold for themselves, and that which they demand of the child, and secondly through their answers to the child’s questions, and their explanations of their own actions, honest or less honest. Parents are particularly prone, of course, to be evasive or dishonest to their children about sex. Some years ago an eminent psycho-analyst suggested to that unless there were taboos in early childhood about the discharge of waste material from the body and about the sex organs, children would all behave like animals at puberty and begin having promiscuous sexual intercourse.
