Our Youth and Birth Control

I have many girlfriends who have preteens or teenagers and they always come to me for advice.  Which has sparked this urge for me to write this. Some of my friends who are in the church feel uncomfortable with entertaining the idea of their children having sex before marriage.  Some of my unsaved friends feel the same, they might understand their child having sex with someone they been in a relationship with for a long time, but yet they will not discuss the birth-control issue.  Let us all remember that we use to be their age.  Their hormones is out of control.  Not to mention the television shows they watch when your not around or the music videos they watch with half naked people parading around. Then their is peer pressure.  Assuming your child is a leader and is able to refrain from temptation that is good, but it is still wise to talk about birth-control with them.  We as parents must be concerned with their health needs as well as other parental provisions we provide them.  Unwanted pregnancy is on an all time rise.  Some children will hide their pregnancy because they know they can’t come to you, therefore they don’t get the proper medical attention they need or worse yet, they ditch the baby in a trash can. (then you will have legal problems) When all you had to do is discuss sex and birth control. 

Then there is the STD’s that your child could get and there is no known cure for AIDS.  We can try to prevent these things from happening if we leave an open door policy with our children.  If they don’t come to you about it, don’t wait on them! Sit them down and talk to them.  Buy the box of condoms.  Open them up, show them the correct way of using them.Tell them how they should fit.  If you have to demonstrate on a cucumber then for goodness sake use it. Get pamphlets for your girls and show them the different types of contraceptives they can use and let them know how effective each one is.  Tell your girls even if they are using a contraceptive that they too should carry condoms for the male just in case he doesn’t have one.  Let them know they must both protect themselves.  Tell them your not encouraging them to have sex, but that you love them enough to let them know the consequences if they do chose to have sex. The child needs to know the type of responsibilities that goes along with having a sexual relationship. Talk about disease and how to recognize the symptoms. You should also talk to them about abstinence. Let them know it’s ok to have the feelings that they are having, but it is also good to wait for the right person.