US Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Health Care Act

[shoju]

From the above:

Remember two very important facts: One, your voice as a parent IS more powerful than your child's peers and the media; and two, talking about sex and sexuality with your child will NOT increase their interest in sex; only help them act more responsibly. It really is this simple.

As a parent of three teenage girls (15, 16, and 18), I can tell you that this is exactly true. Don't let anyone (usually your church, but not always) tell you that you shouldn't give your children information about sex and sexuality. The bolded section in the quote is exactly true. Give them all the information they ask for (sometimes more than they ask for), and make sure they understand about actions and consequences, and you won't have the issues with it that many parents have with sex and sexuality.

The vulgarity part works much the same way. Give kids the information, and they'll be able to function in today's vulgar society, without necessarily becoming part of it themselves. If you shelter them from everything, they *will* run into things on the Internet/TV/other that you probably didn't want them to see, even by accident, but, if they have the information they need, or can get it from you, they can process almost anything without harm, and put it in perspective.

TL;DR: With the way society is today, trying to shelter your kids from sex and sexuality, and by extension, vulgarity, rather than helping them understand it, is not doing them a favor. As has been said in other things, information is power. So it is here.

I have to agree. I was the son of a super conservative Pastor. My sex talk as a kid was: "If you have sex before marriage, you are going to hell. "

My talk about cartoons that I wasn't allowed to watch was: "If you watch that, you are evil, you are going to hell. "

My talk about "secular" music was: "That is the voice of the devil, listening to it, will send you straight to hell. "

What do you know, I was a rock loving, pill popping, pot head, with a pregnant girlfriend at 17.

Now, I'm a 32 year old rock loving former pill popper, raising a 15 year old son, married with 2 younger children as well.

I had no information about it. I leaned heavily on the influences of my friends, because I had no idea what was what. Now, My oldest is 15, and we talk. We talk a lot. I have tried to reinforce with him that I want to know what is going on in his life, not because I want to condemn him for it, and yell at him, but because I want to know that he is making safe choices.

I know that I wont be able to make it 3 more years with him not having sex. With his history, and emotional baggage, he is a very needy young man looking for affection from whatever female will give it to him. It's what happens when your mom abandons you for Crack. But I want to make sure that he is making safe choices about it.

It took a lot of time to build up that trust, and it took a bit to find the balance between being a parent, and being able to "talk". But I think I've found it. My son was very open with me about an encounter with a girl at the beginning of this past school year. We talked, the trouble that he was in had nothing to do with the fact that he and some girl got hot and heavy in a park, and was all about his breaking the rules.
1.) not calling me to let me know he wasn't going straight home
2.) not being home ~2 hours later for his younger siblings when they got off the bus. (they get home ~30 mins before me)
3.) trying to lie about where he was to start.

Shutting them down, and not giving them information is an awful idea. You leave them, like the article says, at the guidance of their peers and media, and that is a damn scary thought sometimes.