Posted on 02/17/2009 6:01:41 AM PST by Big_Monkey
I'm not sure if I detect a hint of sarcasm, or not. I'm certainly not now, or didn't before excuse her "condition". Teenage pregnancy is a problem and usually, if not always, a mistake.
Clearly, these two had no intentions of getting married, at least not in the short-term, before Bristol became pregnant. She (and he) shouldn't rush into anything, especially marriage, while/if she feels pressure from her extraordinary circumstances. Teensage pregancy is a huge problem in America, but so is divorce as well.
Lastly, I wouldn't equate Bristol's circumstance (or any other teenager's for that matter) with the en vogue, and presumably chic, and certainly selfish practice of Hollywood starlets intentionally impregnating themselves to satisfy some narcissistic desire to increase publicity or to sate some other deep-seeded need for personal love and intimacy; which is the reason I presume most starlets find themselves with child and without husbands.
I don’t really quarrel with your desire to keep the boys off of your daughters (I have 2 daughters myself, 17 and 23 now), it is the means by which you are doing so, by creating that sense in your daughters that men are simply not to be trusted.
Well, I ask myself this... when I was a teenage boy, what attracted me to girls? Was it a love of their intelligence, their personalities, or something deep like that, or was it a superficial desire to have sex? It was definitely the latter. While that desire did temper over time, the fact remains that as teenagers, that's what boys like to do.
I don't think that my daughter should not trust boys. I just want her to know what their intentions are and to not fall into a trap.
Reducing teen sex and pregnancy is working. Despite all of the hand wringing going on here. I wonder how much of it has to dow ith going against the norm. A lot of kids want to be non-conformist.
Seems like raising goal oriented kids is what helps the most. If someone wants to go out and achieve a career they will put off pleasure now. Same as it ever was I guess....
My oldest sister didn’t have her first and only child till she was 31 and her career as a photographer had a lot to do with that.
She's 18 now, legally able to do just about anything she wishes.
She's already had her whole private life turned into a fish bowl by the leftist media out to get her mom, and couldn't really speak out and defend herself. (I would have been royally pissed, but that's just me)
Just a guess, but, I'm thinking she had a few things to get off her chest. Can't say that I blame her.
Was it wise, or prudent to do so? Perhaps, perhaps not, only time will tell, but it was her call.
I teach in a very well regarded Catholic secondary school in Australia - a Jesuit school (generally regarded as one of the top two Catholic schools in the country - alongside its brother school in Sydney, and one of the twenty or so top schools in general).
They stress abstinence as the best way for their students. The ideal choice. The choice they hope they’ll all make, and the choice they expect them to take. The boys are left in no doubt of what is and isn’t expected of them.
And then they get on to the practicalities. As a non-Catholic I was rather surprised the first time I encountered it, but they tell the boys all about contraception and how to use it if they decide to have sex. I’ve heard one of the Priests put it pretty simply.
“If you’re having sex before you are married, then you’re committing a sin. What I’d say to you is this - if you’re going to sin, then sin safely.”
In my role as a tutor at the school I have personal pastoral responsibility for 16 boys. I’d always urge them to wait in the strongest terms I can (partly because I believe it’s the right thing to do, partly because it’s my job to help reinforce the message of the school, and partly because I know in most cases their parents want them to wait and I try to back parents) - but I’ve also directed boys to contraception in cases where it’s clear that I’m not going to convince them abstinence is the right choice. I don’t want them having sex - but I want them getting a girl pregnant far less.
People who can’t tell the different between fact and fiction are clinically insane.
I just hope wiser, more experienced heads will prevail in the future and this was the first and last episode of "All My Children" on national television.
Leni
It may not be pretty, and we may not like the impact from a political point of view, but what would you have the Palin's do, handle things the Kennedy way?
Sheesh, no one said a thing about that. No one advocated a cover-up. There's nothing to cover up. What would be more advisable for the Palins', though, is a little shut-up.
What happened happened. Then things happily quieted down (the media, the Sarah detractors, etc. lost interest). Then, suddenly, up pops Bristol on national TV to bring the whole thing to the fore again. For what reason? The press will just make hay of anything and everything she says.
Did the Bush girls or Chelsea get on the tube to explain and remind everyone of their drinking escapades? No. Did the Gore son get on the tube to talk about the escapades with his speeding car and his possession? No. Smart political families know when to leave sleeping dogs lie.
Fortunately, I don't thing most men give a hoot about the life and times of Bristol. I think too many women just love soap operas involving celebrated figures........and just ate it up when the sweet Bristol starred in her first very own national TV interview.
Leni
“I’m not saying that abstinence shouldn’t be the goal, only that isn’t realistic to think it will stop teens from having sex.”
No... actually abstinence will stop teens from having sex.
The lack of abstinence... now that won’t do anything to prevent teen sex. In fact, studies show that 100% of teens who do not practice abstinence have sex. Shocking, I know.
Now where did I see that thought? Oh Right DU yesterday.
In may be a cliche about cons being a little behind the PC social curve, but it's true.
That's why some smart people have invented various ways of decoupling sex from reproduction when the situation so indicates.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.