Omedalus seems to have a problem with teens abstinaing at least THROUGH high school (and definitely college).
Funny thing is, all of the superficial sexual relations of jr. high, high school, and college students is making it harder for them to find a deeper relationship. Everyone is too busy sowing their wild oats to make any committment until much later in life.
It is a prolonged adolesence.
In other words, making themselves emotionally and spiritually unmarriageable, maybe until their late 30's, maybe forever.
Too much sexual experience distorted sexuality for many of my generation, including myself. (I didn't get married until I was 37, my dear husband 38. I was so fortunate to find a good man, one so sound and sane: God has given me than I deserve!)
That --- extended emotional unmarriageability --- is a "sexual dysfunction" in itself, isn't it? I would want to spare my children that.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, weegee.
Hey now. I don't have a problem with abstinence, if it's the best course of action for the individual. This doesn't just hold for teenagers, mind you, it holds for everybody. Most people simply aren't worth sleeping with, regardless of age. :)
It's not a matter of either total abstinence or total promiscuity. The school's head cheerleader can be dating (and sleeping with) the school's star quarterback without necessarily also doing so with the entire football team. Ideally a sexual relationship should be something magical, precious, to be shared only with someone who takes your breath away physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Now, it's pretty clear that teenagers are perfectly capable of feeling this kind of passion for one another - in fact, they're prone to doing so to a greater extent than adults, and with less wisdom. Take Romeo and Juliet, for example, aged 16 and 14 respectively. Those two crazy kids didn't need to keep their hands off each other, they just needed their parents to be a little bit more supportive of their relationship. :)
I had some truly amazing times with my high school sweetheart, and I wouldn't want to deny anybody that kind of life experience. (Mind you, I was a total loser in high school - of the Star Trek Fan Club, constantly playing Dungeons and Dragons variety - and to this day I don't have a clue why any self-respecting girl ever went out with me, but that's a whole 'nuther story).
Someday when I have a daughter, I'm sure the day will come that I catch her dressing like a tart for school. When that happens, her mother and I aren't going to tell her to simply not have sex - 'cuz if you honestly think that works, then it must truly be a long, long time since you've been a teenager. Rather, we'll tell her to focus her energies on boys that are actually worth it, and not to simply give it up to every pimple-faced retard in her class - and most importantly, to use her libido as motivation for self-improvement, to make herself someone that a genuinely cool guy can get crazy about. If she's in a healthy, fulfilling, playful, and monogamous sexual relationship with the captain of the baseball team who just got a full ride to Yale, I'd wish her all the best, and I'd have her mom make sure she's using protection while I in turn make sure that her loverboy, awesome as he may be, doesn't have any side-dishes. If, on the other hand, she's sleeping with some four-eyed Star Trek Fan Club member who runs his own Dungeons and Dragons group, then, well, she and I are gonna have to have a little talk. :)
Oh, and...
Merry Christmas!