you may have seen my other question, but if you have not, I am a hobbyist writer trying to get real parent's responses to questions that have come up about family dynamics in my writing. I am young (21), and have no kids, so I know little on the subject of parental reactions to situations.
My story has two younger characters (from separate families) who have issues with modesty. No, not the typical one where teens dress too skimpily, but the opposite extreme. One character is a young boy, and the other is a young girl, and they both have the same problem. Both are extraordinarily private, modest to the extreme.
The boy is Tracy from my other question, who is an Asexual/Aromatic teen. He manages to avoid most situations that it could become a problem (dressing for full coverage, never using communal showers, changing in the toilet stall...), but got into a loud and nearly physical altercation with his pediatrician when he hit puberty and the doctor needed to examine him.
The girl, named Yu Yan, did many of the same things that Tracy did, including dressing in plain and shapeless clothing. She also flunked sex ed three times due to not wanting to attend and proceeded to pretend that puberty wasn't happening when it hit, denuding herself into believing that if she ignored it, the pain and changes would go away. She was eventually diagnosed with Sexual Aversion Disorder.
So, my question is, how could a parent try to help in such a touchy and sensitive situation? Both sets of parents care very much about their children, and want to help.
EDIT: I have been cued into the fact that I did not specify the source of said issues. These issues in my story were not caused by abuse, assault, or learned behaviors-it's just a personality trait, and in Yu Yan's case, a psychiatric disorder that arose from said personality trait.
Thanks for any assistance.