How to Avoid Teenage Pregnancies: 10 Tips for Parents | Lifescript.com.
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I stumbled across this article by following a link from cnn.com. At it’s most basic level, the best way to avoid teen pregnancy, is communication. Not just to the girl’s. These conversations need to take place with both sexes.
Parent’s, naturally, don’t want to see their kids as sexual beings. I think that we forget that we were teen’s once ourselves, and had to overcome the same hormones as our kids.
I became a dad when I was 21. The mom was 18. We were way too young to be having kids. I am not talking age. Mentally, we were in no way ready to be parents. Our relationship didn’t last. Do I regret being a parent at 21? No. Do I have regrets? Yes. I regret that I wasn’t a better person for the mom.
My wife and I have had these conversations with our kids. Is it an easy conversation to have? No. Not hardly, but it is a necessary conversation. As parents we spend our kids’ lives getting them ready to be adults and good people. Why should education about pregnancy be any different? After all, they will be capable of reproducing far longer than they will be children.
You can download a copy of “10 Tips for Parents” from The National Campaign. You can also purchase it hard copy.
There are tons of tips and education sites online that you can use to educate yourself and your kids about teen pregnancy. Just because you are a parent, doesn’t make you an expert. Being seen as a calm and rational person while having “the talk” with your kids is a positive thing. It will strengthen the bond between you and your kids, once they get over the initial awkwardness of “the talk”.
Remember this. In the digital age, our kids have access to information about sex that we can only imagine. Wouldn’t it be better for them if we are informed about the topic before we discuss it with them?
Related articles
- Don’t panic, the teenage pregnancy epidemic is over! (telegraph.co.uk)
- Teen pregnancies fall by a quarter (bbc.co.uk)
- Teenage pregnancies at new low (thetimes.co.uk)
- Teen Pregnancy: Who is Helping Young Parents (wsaz.com)
- Teenage Pregnancy (keepyoureggssunnysideup.wordpress.com)
- Where are the boys? (vickysideas.wordpress.com)
- The real problem with teenagers: it’s not all sex and pregnancy (telegraph.co.uk)
