Avatar4321 said:
Yes. I was told to remain chaste, and more importantly I was told why we remain chaste, and I am chaste till this day because of it. That's the beauty of human being, if you teach them good principles they will govern themselves. You severely underestimate the power of good parents.
Excellent point. All this talk about kids not being able to control themselves. Some people would want you to believe that kids will wake up one day, their raging hormones have overtaken them, and any and all teachings from their parents will be thrown out the window.
These hormones obviously cause such animalisitc feelings that these poor children simply can't control themselves and will sleep with the first person they walk upon in the hallway at school.
I firmly believe that with the proper teaching (when the children are growing up) of what is right and wrong, respect, how they react to other people and situations, that a lot of this "sexual desire due to hormones" will take them of themselves.
There is peer pressure with cigarettes, liquor, drugs, porn, etc. This parental upbringing will touch on all these parts of their life.
I know this because I lived it. Two girls. Five years apart. They were taught from day one that they control their own actions. These are the things that are proper and correct; these are the things that are not. The list of things that were not acceptable was based on respect (for others and themselves), health, safety, and the law.
You teach your child to wake up in the morning. You teach your child to be clean; take showers, wash their hair, brush their teeth, etc. Why is it so difficult to teach them to say "no" to things that aren't acceptable because of their age or ....?
Believe me, I had a much harder time getting them to wake up in the morning than I did convincing them that saying "no" was a preferred option. Telling them about teenage pregnancy, disease, how their plans for their life would change if they had a child, etc was a breeze compared to getting them out of bed to go to school.
Being a parent isn't easy. Yes, there are all kinds of outside influences over your children that are tough and sometimes, almost impossible to deal with.
I refuse to allow this to change the way I want to raise my kids. I say abstinence is best. Just because there is sex on tv, music, etc; I'm not going to "give-in" and say, "Having sex before you are married is bad and here are the reasons:...... But, if you do have sex, use protection."
Talk about a mixed message.
It is called "self-fulfilling prophecy." If you keep saying it is impossible to teach abstinence, kids don't listen, raging hormones; then yes, parents will believe it.
I wonder what would happen all that energy spent on "just say protection" was spent on "just say no."
