Anyone Watching Oprah Right Now? Very Interesting Topic About Teens Having Sex...

Not really sure where this would go... Parenting, Celebs and TV? Anyway...

Very interesting. Dr. Laura Berman is on today talking to a 14 year old couple about having sex.

She's mentioned some interesting statistics one being that 1/3 of women will have gotten pg by the age of 20 another was that 1 in 5 kids are having sex by the time they're 15.

While I find these statisics staggering, I also am not surprised.

Another one, I kinda missed the whole thing, but the jist was those children who are only taught abstinance only are more likely to have sex sooner and to do it without using protection.

Another thing mentioned was that the mom of the son has bought him condoms in case they do have sex. Her thought is she knows she can't be with her son 24/7 and so at the very least, while she doesn't want her son to have sex he should be educated and know he must wear a condom.

The point of the show was to show viewers how to speak to your kids about having sex. Getting them to understand the ramifications of having sex (such as pregnancy or disease) and how to deal with it.

Sorry, I know I'm rambling but I'm typing as I watch the show!

So does anyone have any thoughts about this?

Re: Anyone Watching Oprah Right Now? Very Interesting Topic About Teens Having Sex...

I don't know if I would provide my children with birth control...

I know growing up my mother made it very, very difficult for me to have any alone time with boyfriends..

No boys allowed in my room, no boys over after a certain time. If I was going ANYWHERE my mother called ahead to make sure there was parental supervision there.

I had a friend whose mother had looser requirements- and I was not allowed to go to that house, even w/ the mother there.

By the time I was 18 and in college and was having frequent sex I went on my own to planned parenthood to acquire birth control and have an ob/gyn exam. I guess I figured I was old enough to go at it alone and figure it out myself.

Of course, I don't think kids that are 18/freshman in college would even know how to schedule a doctor's appt on their own, let alone procure their own birth control.

Re: Anyone Watching Oprah Right Now? Very Interesting Topic About Teens Having Sex...

I agree, I'm not so sure I'd be ok with buying my kid birthcontrol however what I found VERY interesting was that when Dr. Laura was finished speaking with the kids, the girlfriend admitted that she was slowly being talked out of having sex anytime soon.

I think that was the whole point of the show. Talk to your kids candidly and openly about ALL aspects of having sex and that alone could sway their opinions about doing it anytime soon.

To that point, however, the boyfriend still wanted to have sex.

But none the less, I did think it was interesting that when they spoke about getting pg or catching a disease candidly and openly the kids, who thought they'd talked about everything saw that they really hadn't.

While I do agree that keeping an open line of communication is key, I don't think it will stop all kids from having sex so what do you do?