He has been telling me that he learned about circumcised and uncircumcised penis' and he says he wants his circumcised. Should he get circumcised now or later?

You need to discuss this issue with your son and a doctor or, whoever would do the circumcision. This is usually done at a very early age when most babies will not remember what it was like. The service provider should explain to you and your son what it will be like before he makes the final decision. A 12 year old will remember

At 12 it will be painful. He won't be awake for the procedure, he'll have to be in hospital, and like Ballengerb said, he will remember it, the recovery won't be fun.

At 12 kids go through stages of wanting to be like everyone else, or wanting something because they heard about it. My 12 year old told me he wants a tattoo, obviously I'm not going to grant that wish, because he's too young to know or understand the consequences of making a permanent decision like that.

By all means talk to your doctor, and make sure your son knows what's involved with this surgery, and that once he does it, there's no going back.

Personally, I'd tell him to wait, and if he still wants it done when he's an adult than he can make an informed decision then. That's my opinion. :)

Good luck.

Hello M:

I wouldn't.. Tell him that if he still wants it at 21, you'll pay for it. But, 12 is too young to make LIFE ALTERING decisions.

excon

I wanted the same thing at 12 because all my friends made fun of kids who were uncircumcised. They never knew my secret at the time, so for a while I dwelled on it and then I began to worry that women are going to be horrified. I went to see doctor and asked about it and he told me the older you get, the riskier circumcision becomes, I also believe he told me that the preferred method for older kids is burning. I don't know if he was lying to me, but it made me think twice and I decided to put it off for a while to see if it's what I really wanted. Long story short, I never went through with it and I'm so glad I didn't.

Go to the doctor like Alty said 'cause that alone may scare him out of it. But even so, I say don't allow it to happen so long as you have the legal power to do so. It's a completely unnecessary procedure and, like I gave in my example, it's probably just peer pressure that's causing all this and he'll get over that when he hits his late teen years.

Agree with everyone else. Did he say why he wants it done? Where did he get his information?

His reasoning may be misinformed, and/or incomplete, and a simple explanation and more research may change his thoughts as well.