Every parent is well aware of what sex is. But not all parents go about educating their children about it growing up so they could be instilled with this information to prevent them from becoming sexually unhealthy and or pregnant. Every household is different and people come from different backgrounds such as a household communicating sex openly or where you have a household who uphold religious morals. In this type of household chances are sex may or may not be discussed because of the morals this particular household value. What type of upbringing did you experience? Was your home open about sex education or did you experience a very religious lifestyle where sex was unacceptable? How or who was your source of becoming sexually educated? Either way having that “sex talk” with your child and or teen still comes off to being one of those awkward conversations some parents still struggle with today.
Growing up in my household my parents basically spoiled me with any and everything I wanted and now that I think I about it, I think it had something to do with preventing me from thinking about boys. Honestly I have to say it worked. My mom nor dad though still didn’t sit me down and decided to talk to me about til much later in life. This conversation did not come up til my older sister surprisingly became pregnant. I think back now and realize if they could get around the awkwardness and wanted to prepare my sister and I things would have went differently. If my parents discussed all the different types of consequences from having sex and statistics of pregnancy among teens, im sure my sister’s pregnancy may have been prevented. How old were you when your parents decided to have the “talk” with you? How early of age were you when you felt like you wanted to know? If your parents didn’t have a struggle having the sex talk with you at an early age do you find it useful today and or in your teen years?
If you had children how do you think you may go about educating your teen about sex? Would you discuss the various statistics of unhealthy diseases and pregnancy among teens? What type of household or upbringing will you allow your children and or teens to be raised?
Victoria Harrison
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ReplyDeleteI grew up in a Christian household with parents who were very old fashioned and conservative. My parents never talked to me about sex it was topic that they seemed to talk around. My source of becoming sexually active was with my peers. Everyone seemed to be having sex at the same time and it was frequently talked about. since my parents never had the talk with me, the only education i got about sex was from friends who may not have been such viable sources. Although my parents never had the talk with me, my mom just kinda knew when i became sexually active. When i got to high school, probably my junior year, that was around the time that i really wanted to know more in depth details about sex. During this time period kids didnt seem to think pregnancy applied to them and were very uneducated about STDs and STI's. If i had children Im not sure at what age i will start talking to them about sex. I do plan on having the talk to them but i feel as though i will instill values in them that will make them think twice before they partake in risky behavior. My relationship with my children will be special and i would want to build one where they would feel comfortable talking to me about these things.
ReplyDeleteJ'Quana Brown
As I've mentioned before my dad raised me for my teenage years, so, as a result I skipped out on a lot of awkward talks. I do recall being in 7th grade doing homework in the living room as my mom listened to NPR in the adjoining kitchen. They were doing a story on the abstinence only programs. Specifically- what should and shouldn't be taught. I was fascinated by the subject and so I walked into the kitchen to listen. My mother proceeded to bombard me with unwanted information. I don't know if it was just me or if it was too early but i bolted out of that kitchen.
ReplyDeleteSo that was the last memory of that ever trying to be told to me. I wanted to know just not from my mom. Maybe a cool cousin who wouldn't make it sound like a health class. Fun but not scary and with the precautions laid on the table. Maybe she'd give me some condoms. And as much as I'd like to think that Id be able to talk to my kids about sex I'd much rather them feel comfortable talking to a cousin who was responsible then feeling uncomfortable talking to me and not asking the necessary questions or blocking me out as I did to my mother.
I would talk to them about STIs to make sure that was for sure talked about and if they came to me asking i would feel comfortable talking to them and making sure that they knew they could talk to me.
Jean Carr
So I grew up in a Christian household, althought my mom was kind of liberal in her upbringing of my siblings and I. Why I say liberal is in the fact that my mom was much more of an authoritative parent than an authoritarian parent. She was comfortable talking about sex with us but I don't think she ever mentioned birth control to us. This maybe because of her upbringing as a catholic where birth control was not accepted. So I would say my siblings and I knew about the process of making babies but not how to protect one's self from STIs, STDs, or pregnancy. This also may be due to the fact that my mom may or may not have known truly how to protect herself. She definitely knew about birth control but not about STIs, or STDs as much. Another reason why she may not have mentioned birth control was because we were brought up to abstain from sex until marriage. So there may be no point to talk about birth control. Then when she knew my siblings and I were sexually active her motto was "if they are making adult decisions about having sex then they can be responsible to get birth control or not." Which I would say did not help either of my siblings out, because it left us in the dark about what is the best way to be responsible.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I have kind of ragged on my mom for her parenting about sex, I think I would have been receptive to her about talking about it. She has always been the mom that is very comfortable and trusting to my siblings and I so I think if she was earnest and sat down with me trying to explain the best way she knew how about what to do when one becomes sexually active, I think it would have been beneficial. I don't really know exactly why certain thing were or were not discussed.
For myself and my child, I think I will honestly talk about the seriousness of engaging in sex, how to protect oneself. I will still raise my child seeing sex as an important part of a relationship that shouldn't be squandered with insignificant people. Not that one is a worse person if they have casual sex just that one way of trying to stay safe is by having sex with a serious partner. Hopefully, I will have the guts to have the "sex talk" with my kid before he won't listen to me anymore.
Maegen Hahn