A near relative discussed this issue with me. They have 2 sons and 2 daughters and everyone sleeps in the same room. They cannot afford as of now to live in a large apartment with separate room for kids.
So, it seems that one night after the kids slept, the parents were doing the special cuddling, to put it neatly. After the act, they came to knew that one of their son who is 6 years old was awake and pretending to be asleep.
He was pretending because of strict rules of bedtime and the kid had to get up early the next day for school.
The parents are concerned that they did a mistake and should have thoroughly checked if everyone was asleep. This is the first time it happened to them and they are clueless.
The mother told the child the next day that she was applying some sort of balm to the father as he had some pain and asked the child if he was awake. The child told that he didn't see anything as it was dark but heard 'noises' and then 'smiled'.
How to deal with children in such situations and what could be the psychological impact on them? Is it too early for them to understand about intimacy? What if they get more curious and want to experiment?