A girl at my daughter's school is pregnant. This is a K-6. This girl is only 12 years old, 1.5 years older than Rose. She was pulled out of the sex education courses offered by the school because her parents were offended by it. That is their right, of course, but she didn't know anything because her parents told her nothing and now she's pregnant.
For pete's sake, mothers and fathers talk to your kids about sex before junior high! Swallow your embarrassment and do it. Start at 8 or 9 gradually increasing the information as they mature, but get it done and do it by age 10. These kids need to know!
Let them know the true facts of life before it is too late: STD's, HIV, AIDS, pregnancy, emotional trauma of sex too young in a non-committed relationship, preferably in marriage but at the very least a long-term committed relationship, birth control, barrier protection, and the only fool-proof method of abstinance. Give them the facts people or your lives may take a change you were never expecting. Just like this little girl's did.
This is My Rant
April 4th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
April 4th, 2007 at 10:15 pm 1175721347
April 4th, 2007 at 10:43 pm 1175722990
April 4th, 2007 at 10:44 pm 1175723053
April 4th, 2007 at 11:02 pm 1175724121
April 4th, 2007 at 11:33 pm 1175725986
Imagine a fifth grader being pregnant. Wow, times have changed.
As a child protection caseworker, we had a case of a 12 year old, who gave birth, and her own father was the baby's father. Talk about ruined lives....
April 4th, 2007 at 11:53 pm 1175727229
Not to play "devil's advocate", but it's easy to blame parents when they may have done the best they could and maybe they did talk to her about sex. There is more to sex education today than telling kids where babies come from and birth control and maybe that is what the parents thought was offensive.
For the record, I declined to have my youngest daughter in public school sex ed and she managed to not get pregnant. My two older daughters did participate in sex ed, but they are 28 and 26. By the time YD was at that age the curriculum had changed, but then I do live in California.....
April 5th, 2007 at 12:25 am 1175729136
There were three pregnancies in my high school that came to term that I know of when I was a kid, and they were all girls under 16 when they got pregnant and 2 girls that I know of that had abortions.
I'm heavy on the abstinance side of things, but I still give my daughter all the information she needs to protect herself. Rose looks 13 even though she's only 10.5 and she has been hit on by boys as old as 16 while we were out as a family. She started getting hit on by boys 14 or 15 when she was 8. She has the information to protect herself, as well as a senior brown belt in tae kwon do to protect herself. Knowledge is power, but martial arts don't hurt.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:28 am 1175729327
April 5th, 2007 at 12:31 am 1175729505
April 5th, 2007 at 01:09 am 1175731753
April 5th, 2007 at 05:45 am 1175748329
April 5th, 2007 at 06:02 am 1175749334
And you don't sound like a bi***. You sound like a MOM with a different opinion.
April 5th, 2007 at 01:15 pm 1175775343
April 5th, 2007 at 01:56 pm 1175777818
Hope the poor soon-to-be mom is OK.
April 5th, 2007 at 02:32 pm 1175779977
Just wow!
April 5th, 2007 at 03:55 pm 1175784943
Monkeymama, this is where I also have a different experience. I found it was the parents who DIDN'T do anything when they were young had the kids who were the wildest because they had no limits set, and could lie, lie, lie and their parents believed them.
April 5th, 2007 at 07:39 pm 1175798380
If they're old enough to bleed, they're old enough to breed.
April 5th, 2007 at 08:20 pm 1175800817
April 5th, 2007 at 08:55 pm 1175802924
April 6th, 2007 at 02:35 am 1175823307
April 6th, 2007 at 03:35 pm 1175870149
And the curse of being a pregnant minor with ignorant parents: what if she gets pre-eclampsia or some health problem?
April 8th, 2007 at 02:59 am 1175997560
April 12th, 2007 at 05:22 am 1176351750
April 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am 1176541788
And no, her parents are not the ones being awful this time. Too darn many people knew what was going on because they felt no need to hide it once the decision had been made to keep the baby. Now everyone feels they have a right to weigh in with their opinion. I kept my opinions to myself and told her that if she ever just wanted to talk about her feelings to someone who had lost a baby to come see me. I wouldn't judge her, I'd just listen. Her expression told me I had at least said the right thing. I wish more people had.
April 14th, 2007 at 10:33 pm 1176586397
It makes my blood boil when I hear people start to say such self righteous comments. A simple "I'm so sorry" would have been fine. Why can't people engage brain before mouth leaves me shaking my head in shock.
April 15th, 2007 at 02:55 am 1176602145
April 15th, 2007 at 01:39 pm 1176640792
April 15th, 2007 at 08:34 pm 1176665666
April 20th, 2007 at 05:53 pm 1177088011
April 22nd, 2007 at 05:45 pm 1177260345
That's really just too much for a child that age to bear well, I think.
I talked to both my sons well before they needed the information but I didn't want them to hear half truths and downright lies from peers so I made sure they were educated. Some of it was pretty uncomfortable for us all but we survived. They're now 23 and 22 and to the best of my knowledge have never gotten a girl pregnant or had an STD. They both came to me and told me after they had sex the first time! No, there were no details - they just wanted to let me in on it, I guess. I remember being somewhat surprised they told me and somewhat puzzled, too. lol
April 23rd, 2007 at 03:01 am 1177293680