Ack! I missed Wednesday! Where'd it
go! No joke guys, today felt like a Friday, so sorry for the
lateness. The sibs had a day off of school and that throws me So.
Far. Off. So, this week is supposed to be my political rantings. Or
something to do with Americaness. The epiphany thingy.
But to tell you the truth, other than
being proud that Occupy Wall Street is growing and spreading, I have
little to talk about. Right now, I'm still trying to sort everything
out, and school has been all kinds of WHAM this past week.
I suppose I could relate to you a
conversation I had about sex education with a European. They've
raised their child in a very European way, but lived in the states
for some time. Not uncommon, after all. I am on a military base.
The conversation came up because she
was confused why, at nine, the littlest wasn't big on adult topics,
and why we tried to prevent them around her. Her daughter,
apparently, had been. All my attempts at explaining didn't go over
well. I was, to be honest, a bit blind sided by the topic. I'm not
a parent. I'm a sister, I'm an aunt, but I'm not a major part of my
sister or my nieces lives when it comes to the Talk. In fact, I
fully intend on being far, far away when it is given. Maybe China.
Or Japan. Or the moon. The moon sounds good.
I can tell you what I know of course.
I know that at nine, I knew about the body parts, and knew that birth
control existed. I had sex education, in the form of body education.
We learned how babies were made, by watching a really old school
video, about our bodies. The classes were segregated by gender.
But people didn't actively discuss it.
At most we giggled awkwardly, embarrassed to have out teacher talk to
us about this. Most of our parents had given us a short version of
the Talk at least, around this age, to prepare us for the lesson that
of course they knew about. You couldn't attend without a signature.
I know that at that age, I couldn't
watch shows like the Simpson's, or anything with even vaguely adult
humor. I was a very sheltered kid though, and part of it had to do
with where I was living. I had seen animals go at it, with only a
vague understanding and a serious level of disgust.
Her child, at this age, knew about sex.
Watched shows where sex was discussed frequently. Didn't watch
cartoons, but preferred more adult oriented programming. For me,
I've never even seen some of the shows she named, so can't comment,
other than having heard nothing remotely interesting about them.
But I can tell you now, that when I do
have kids, they aren't going to watch shows with a bunch of gossiping
idiot women who like to discuss men's equipment and favorite
positions. That can wait until they are out of my house, thank
you!
Maybe it's a European thing, maybe is a
non-Christian thing, but I don't think teen pregnancy is caused by
teen's not knowing. They do know. They've been told for years, and
they have older siblings, or friend's with older siblings, or
neighbor, or some one close enough that they'll have some clue what
sex is. They'll know the possible results of their actions. For
some of them, it's so much a part of their family's culture and the
culture of where they live they can't imagine anything else. Others
are horrified, and know they've made a mistake. But they cannot say
they don't know, whether they attended sex ed classes or not.
I don't know. I do know that kids
mature at different ages, and that certainly plays a factor, but I
would struggle with any child of mine maturing quite so rapidly.
One Final Byte: Oh yeah, I may have a
cute boyfriend.
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