what would a law of chastity abiding girl like myself need birth control for? i use the best kind: abstinence! lol. i know if there are any liberal readers of this blog, they are rolling their eyes and hotly dismissing me as a prudish religious zealot. definitely not the case, but thats not my point of writing this post.
a dear(non member)friend who has none of the religious "sexual hangups" that i do was the lone voice of reason in a group of women who were discussing buying birth control for their teenage children. my friend asked for my opinion and this is what i told her:
i would hope that parents would be educating their kids along the way-instilling the family values from the beginning so when the kid gets to be a horny teenager you will either have enough clout to convince them not to have sex(if thats what your family values dictate)or they will trust you enough to tell you they are going to have sex & need some guidance on how to be safe. i dont think people should throw a box of condoms or a diaphragm at their kids and say "just be safe". i think there needs to be continuing education,but allowing them access to appropriate birth control seems much more favorable than an unwanted pregnancy and very adult responsibilities for kids whose brains havent even fully formed yet. not to mention stds. good grief. dont even get me started on that.
from what my friend told me, i guess its "cool" to be a parent that is open about allowing their kids to have sex and providing the birth control. i personally find this ridiculous.
any thoughts? even "good" mormon kids have sex-what are the parents out there doing? do you think you are successful at promoting religious based abstinence or are you all hiding your heads in the sand and just hope your kids dont get "caught" with a pregnancy or std?
I think the problem with abstinence only is that if you get caught up in the moment and something happens, you're unprepared.
ReplyDeleteThere's gotta be some way you can say, "Don't have sex, but if you do, use this."
Um.... I think I need to give this subject some more thought. It's a tough one! We'd all like to think our teens are going to choose abstinence but I don't think we should count out other possibilities. We are pretty far off from this so far but I am sure it will come up at some point.
ReplyDeletewhen i was in high school, the people who were having sex were probably 16-17 years old and had a steady boyfriend or girlfriend. from what i am hearing(there are even studies being done on it)kids as young as 12 and 13 are sexually active. usually starting with oral sex(a lot of kids dont think this is "real" sex), but quickly progress to actual intercourse, changing partners more than they change their shoes.
ReplyDeletei remember my mom telling me to make the decision in advance. if you already know the answer is "no" when confronted with the decision to have sex-you either avoid compromising situations or you are prepared to shut down any situation where you might enter the "red zone" ;-)
i'm a good mormon girl too, but i'm on birth control. i'm not sexually active, of course - i have really, really horrible periods and i use birth control to regulate them. i've always kept strong in my values, and being on birth control doesnt make me any more likely not to. it's honestly a health thing for me.
ReplyDeletei had a few friends who used bc pills to manage bad periods. i totally understand using the pill for medical reasons and not as pregnancy prevention
ReplyDeleteI think the key for LDS parents has got to be talking with their children. Not talking TO them, but WITH them. The conversation needs to go both ways. Parents need to make sure their children know what Heavenly Father expects of them. The children have to have enough trust in their parents that they will ask them questions and the parents need to answer those questions.
ReplyDeleteI hope and expect that my children will keep the law of chastity. I will do everything in my power to help them understand and have a testimony of it.