Does any boy ever need to be shown how to masturbate??? Come on! They figure it out real damn quick on their own. What they don't know initially they learn from their friends.
I do apologise if I sound judgemental, but there is indeed a very creepy incestuous undertone to this thread in many of the posts.
I don't understand it whatsoever. I learned to masturbate without any assistance from anyone . . . let alone my father. I love the man dearly, but I never saw him nude. I never wanted to see him nude. I never cared to see him nude and certainly never longed for him to see me nude; and especially not watch me masturbate. And this is the same for my own children. Yes, having a healthy sense of on'es body is good . . . but so is a little modesty.
I don't disagree with that, I just wonder what's the best way to do things. While you don't want to be incestuous, as you said, I feel that an extreme prudicial view (one that never mentions sex, nudity, or anything of the sort...I'm still waiting on "the talk" myself...I'm assuming my father was either going to wait for my wedding night or figured I'd figure it out on my own

) isn't a great idea. And, of course, you have to factor in individuals and how they come to accept themselves.
But then, life's too complicated to figure out all at once and boil down into something cut and dry. Modesty is good, but to the point that one is afraid to be shirtless while swiming? Sexuality between non-married family members (that is, the husband and the wife) isn't a good thing, but prudish to the point that the kids curse themselfs for jerking off and the concept of sex (much less masturbation, safer sex, and the parent's values regarding sex and sexuality) are simply unmentioned and not talked about? That's not good either. I'm guessing as with everything else in life, the trick is striking a ballance and tayloring your actions to the individuals you are dealing with. But that takes wisdom and a ballance between wreaklessness and prudence...
As for the first thing you said, I didn't have to be shown how, I figured it out by accident (while conducting a completely unrelated experiment... -blush- Hehe, it's kinda funny, actually...), but though I figured it out at 12, from age 14-17 I thought I was committing some terrible sin which I hated myself for, something that I didn't totally get over until I was almost 20. So while I'm not saying that a father should physically demostrate how to do it for his sons, it might be nice to be told you aren't damning yourself to hell over it...in fact, I'd rather any sons of mine do that than have indiscriminate (or worse still, unprotected) sex with random people. Oh yeah, and I never had any friends that I talked with about it (I HONESTLY thought I was the only person on Earth that did it until I was 18. ^_^; And besides, all my friends came from essentially equally prudish famalies.)
Well, like I said, what do I know? -shrug-