beezer wrote:I appreciate you being so forthright and candid. You mentioned informing your future children of sexuality. First of all, what age do you think is appropriate to bring up that issue with them? Second, do you think that a public school has the right to usurp that bond between you and your children by bringing it up.
In my ideal scenario its not something where i really have one seminal moment that is the talk. Id rather create an environment that is open to questioning and has me being consistently involved with giving information as i go. I dont know for sure what age is the right age, however i do operate under the premise things will happen earlier than i expect them too, and if i am forthwright with my children and allow them to see i am comfortable with the issue, the better prepared they will be, which is my main motivation.
I just had "the talk" with my oldest boy. It was not a comfortable situation, but it would have been even more uncomfortable had I had to contend with the public school's interpretation of what was appropriate/not appropriate to talk about. I'm sure there will be more questions and he'll learn some things by listening to dirty jokes told my his friends, but I still want to be his primary source of information because I'm his dad & he's my son. He doesn't belong to the state.
i can certainly understand this mentality. Our children are our charge and i do agree there may be things which parents should possibly have a monopoly on as far as information goes. However, and please dont read into this the wrong way, but i feel that i wont have some of the qualms you have, because i dont view sexuality in the same way as you do. I more look at the schools role and my as working together, and i hope that the school systems arent having to rescue my kids from my lack of information. There are things the school will be better and things that hopefully the childs mother and i will be able to deal with better.
My take on this is that the secularists want to keep talking about it and introducing it to kids at a younger and younger age. By doing so it just encourages kids to be more and more curious and then they experiment sexually because they're curious. The same secular preachers of sexual education then point to increased teen/child pregnancies & shout "See! We need more sexual education because they're sexually active" Well duh! It's because they constantly stimulate the curiosity in the first place. They reinforce their own relevance.
as far as i remember, the research is always pretty conflicting as to whether or not our teaching causes more activity. Some say it does, other say it doesnt. I guess my bigger potential fear as a parent is this, if my child ends up in a very difficult situation because they were not aware of information that could have been provided, i will feel much worse than if they became sexually active at a younger age. Certainly i dont expect my children to be perfect...im not after all, but i do hope that by instilling information and values early enough, they will be able to begin to set the framework for a more fufilling life.
We'll see! I think you will change your mind on this issue when it affects your kids. I have no doubt though that you wish to be the best parent possible though. Just trust me when I tell you that your world & your beliefs will change when it is a reality and not just an internet topic.

you sound just like my mother...lol no offense of course, i love her and value her opinion a lot. It is certainly always possible that from the moment i see my child (if i have one some day) that everything will change. It seems to do that for a lot of people, im probably not so different than them. However, i feel like the things ill be looking for in an eventual partner and the way i was raised along with my education are going to steer me in a certain direction. For me, sexuality from a parenting issue is just part of a greater goal to have an open environment for children to grow. Part of this of course means there will be necessarily scary outcomes of this, but i dont think i want to trade that for what i feel is doing the best for my kids.