Friday, April 17, 2009

The Talk

Okay, it's time for the "talk" -- you know the one -- the one you've been dreading since your kid had his or her first crush on some kid in their first-grade class. Yep, the sex talk is enough to make your stomach turn. But don't worry....

The good news is your kids are getting plenty of education on the subject -- TV, movies, the Internet, music, and their friends provide a continual stream of education. Yep, no need to have the talk about sex. They got it covered. They are doing a great job, too. The kids are learning lifelong patterns of behavior.

Let's see -- sextexting, sending nude pictures of oneself is now getting to be a socially accepted form of dating etiquette. According to a study by Teenage Research Unlimited, 22 percent of teenage girls and 18 percent of boys have taken nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and sent them to someone or posted them online.

And what about abortions? In the United States there are about 3,700 abortions performed each day with 52 percent of the females obtaining these abortions younger than age 25. Women aged 20-24 obtain 32 percent of all abortions; teenagers obtain 20 percent and girls under age 15 account for 1.2 percent. That means that every day there are 44 girls under the age of 15 having an abortion.

Hmmm. And what about STDs? At least one-in-four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more than 3 million teens, aged 14 to 19, infected.

Okay, Dads. As Nike® says, "just do it." Take time to talk to your sons and daughters about sex. Yes, it will be weird. Yes, you'll probably hate it and, yes, you may even stumble for words, but your kids -- in the short and long run -- will be better off for it. And, who knows? They may even thank you for it someday.

3 comments :

jWinters said...

Dads should talk about this - but so should guys.

I mean, we're not all procreationally active right now, but that doesn't get us out of the discussion.

If anything, it puts us even more into the discussion.

In addition to questioning how we should be talking to our biological offspring - we should be considering how we could act as mentors providing positive models of male behavior, how we can do positive things to put a dent in the abortion statistics (and I'm sorry, I don't think your anti-abortion placard is going to fit).

Lastly, what do we do in those Eve-Apple situations when the devil is using someone of the fairer sex to push us into uncomfortable and sinful places?

in Christ,
jW

The Layman said...

I was watching a Lutherans For Life DVD a couple times last week. And one of the things I did not know before watching again was according to the DVD, the child to be, has the job of attaching the imbilical cord to it's mother..one chance here..AND THE MOTHER SAYS? And in it all is the father's rights and obligations. Perhaps that is where we teach wrongly....Teach all three as a unit as our Heavenly Father intended, it might even lower the cost of civil arbitration.

Ed in Davie, FL said...

I'm a volunteer male counselor at a local pro-life women's center. Among the hundred of young men I have encountered, I have counseled three boys aged 12 who had pregnant 12 year old girlfriends. It's too late to talk to your sons and daughters when they come of age sexually. They must have parents who talk to them about God's plan for their sex lives and life in general. Abstinence won't work for all of our children because divorce and separation along with drugs and abuse still drive some kids to sex. But it will work for the majority of kids. In Africa, it is the only thing turning the AIDS epidemic around. Don't tell the Africans abstinence won't work. It is working. We can't just sit around and say there is nothing we can do about teenage sex. Jesus told us we can do all things through Him. All things!

Speaking of videos,emails,and messaging nudity or sexual harassment, it's being addressed by the schools with suspensions, police investigations, and jail time for some offenders. Why are we waiting for the schools to deal with this? This is the family's problem. I have addressed this with our high school Bible study group. Have you?