[goldstategop]

Sex is NOT kid-stuff. Yes, that includes teens. No 16 year old should be having sex. Especially girls. It comes with a serious kind of commitment and to put it quite simply: children are not ready for marriage or the responsibilities of an adult relationship, including raising a child.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Tax-chick]

Good article. I know I’m whistling in the wind, but I hope Miss Spears will place her child for adoption with a stable married couple.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Agreed and parents should both be present in their lives in order to guide their children.

[Just another Joe]

You will not stop your 16 year old daughter from having sex unless you chain her to the bed, home school, and never let her out of your sight.
It's even harder to stop your 16 year old son from having sex.

That said, the only person that can stop a 16 year old from having sex is - themselves.
You teach them, you train them, you instaill the right values in them, at some point you have to let them make their own decisions.
I would consider 16 about the right age for that.

[Rudder]

Teen-age girls are having sex. So why do they do it?

Because they don't act like the responsible adults they aren't.

[familyop]

Well, there’s what we want to do (culture, identity, pride, materialism, and the like), and there’s what we’re supposed to do. One side of our nature tells us to teach kids to continue being kids into adulthood, work for a long time toward getting rich, buy pretty mates, one after another, etc. All of that doesn’t work out for most, so most families are violated.

The other tells us to teach our bigger kids to be good adults and to do the right things. They become adults, choose good mates, get married and have kids. They more often resist urges to violate the family (adultery—not illegal for most but “abhorrent” just the same). They would have their chances to get rich, too, if so many weren’t so unwilling to hire goodness.

People will eventually have to stop beating around the bush with extraneous issues and doing things our way (the way of yet again making the first choice) and make the wiser choice between the two.

We’re a very spoiled generation. Things will change for the better.

[Don Corleone]

Abstinence...it works every time its tried!

[adopt4Christ]

excellent article - thanks for posting.

[kinoxi]

That's why the scourge of teen sex will always be among us until we inspire dads to be intimately involved in the raising of their children, and raise boys to respect and cherish women as their equals rather than as a means to their more selfish ends.

How's the saying go?
It takes two to tango.

[sourcery]

“Silly Rabbi, sex is for...”

[Omedalus]

Of course, if you don't have sex when you're 16, you're more likely to develop sexual dysfunction (and related psychological difficulties) later in life. Especially if you're a girl.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Sex/story?id=3932047&page=1

[Popman]

Mothers cannot be as effective in protecting their daughters from men simply because they are not men, and therefore do not know how the male mind works. That's why fathers must be actively involved in their daughters lives in order both to provide a level of immunity to their daughters from being desperate for a boy's attention, and to give their daughters a noble standard by which to judge the men who want to date them.

Bears repeating

[silentreignofheroes]

Come on in boy sit on down
And tell me about yourself
So you like my daughter do you now?
Yeah we think she’s something else
She’s her daddy’s girl
Her momma’s world
She deserves respect
That’s what she’ll get
Ain’t it son?
Hey y’all run along and have some fun
I’ll see you when you get back
Bet I’ll be up all night
Still cleanin’ this gun

Raised a daughter::ain’t that hard..

[Puddleglum]

We need parents to teach boys how to be gentlemen, as well as dads and moms teaching daughters that their self-worth does not hinge on Lothario Jr getting some off of her.

I know the author said dads play a part is givng their daughters psychological armor against would be don juans. Is the strategy for patterning boys the same? Do moms have more influence with them?

I ask as a dad of young kids. I am impressed by the author and will follow up on him.