Topic : 10/07 The Latest Debates

I am going to be blasted for this. I think that parents of kids whose behavior is extreme in public should be arrested for child neglect.

What is extreme you may ask?

1.   In a store. Tearing things up. Cursing. Screaming. Hitting their parents.

           Why?

If this was an adult they would be arrested.

Yes I do have kids. Five and Four. At home, it's no holds barred. In public, you will behave. You are doing your child a disservice by allowing them to behave in a manner that is not appropriate.

No I do not want to discipline your children, thats your job. How ever you see fit. Time out, whuppins, revoking rewards, what ever.

We should teach our children that there is a time and place for everything and they should be respectful of others.

Even though I do not want to discipline your child I will redirect them.

2.   If your child is kicking my chair I will politely ask them to stop. If this continues I will speak to the parent.

I am expecting a little girl in two months, I also plan to breastfeed her.  However, I am not going to nurse in public because I personally wouldn't be comfortable exposing myself.  It wouldn't bother me if someone else needed to nurse in public, after all it is perfectly natural. 

I do think that making contraception available at school is a very good idea.  My children are small but if / when the time comes I would much rather they use a condom than become pregnant or contract a STD that might kill them. 

If you think for one second a lack of contraception is going to stop premarital sex you really need to get your head out of the sand.  Teen pregnancy is not something that only happens to poor, uneducated, single parent homes.  It affects every income level, and every family structure.  You would be doing your child a tremendous favor by having an open minded discussion about birth control and not being judgemental.  By the way, I am a married lady, an avid church goer, and a registered voter.  Also my family income is $85,000 and I am college educated. 

Pumping is great for work if you can do it. Unfortunately some pumps that are out there are bad ones, which are manufactured by formula companies to try and get women to give up and choose formula. I think the Congress is looking at requiring all pumps to meet certain standards. I've never had mastitis but I have friends who have, and my mom did, and the best thing to do is not give up and keep nursing, in addition to the relief measures and the antibiotics. If you don't keep nursing because of mastitis you will probably get it more than once as you are drying up. But fequent nursing will help you keep from getting mastitis. 

Women who work should pump at work and nurse at home - I agree! 

Formula is expensive, not healthy, and you have to wonder what else gets in there in the factories. Sometimes they make mistakes and add way too much of powder x or vitamin y, and I believe formulas have had to issue massive recalls over 27 times. I think one time they accidentally mixed in something that was supposed to go into an adult energy drink and it was at toxic levels for babies. 

Breast milk has never been recalled! 

I was totally disappointed that all that was brought up for the stand on abstinence was HIV and the prevention of pregnancy. I am a school social worker and have 3 eighth grade girls that have HPV and according to 2 of them they used condoms. They did not realize that HPV is from contact regardless if you used a condom. Unfortunately, their parents were not even aware of HPV.  Two of them did not realize that HPV could cause cervical cancer. The health of these young girls is equally as important as preventing  an unwanted pregnancy. 

was also disappointed that you did not bring up the lack of emotional intelligence of these young people and what deep psychological scars that these early intimate relationships can have on our youth. Abstinence is the most effective way to optimize adolescent sexual health both physically, mentally and emotionally.  

Abstinence can work, but not in a vaccume.  I am 45, married @ 20 and was a virgin when I did so.  But you don't abstain by stopping just before the sex act!  You abstain by not dating for recreation.  You abstain by going out in groups and not being alone with members of the opposite sex.  You abstain by having a ...dare I say it?...chaperone when you do go out on a date with someone that you are considering for marriage.  I did it in the late 70's when I dated my husband for 2 years before we got married.  It can be done.  But you can't let your children start dating when they're 12 & 13 and then expect them to choose abstinence.  You can't let your kids go to parties where there is no parental supervision, or sleep overs where you don't know the families or who is going to be there.  It takes alot of work, but it is wll worth it.  I have 3 kids, 17, 19 and 22.  The oldest is married and was a virgin when got married.  It can work. 

No we don't have any problem telling our kids to say no to drugs, drinking or smoking.  And I don't think anyone is saying there is a problem telling kids not to have sex.  We are just making sure that if our kids are going to have sex they are protected.  I remember after one of the Don't Drink and Drive lectures in school...the teachers/SADD *Students Against Destructive Decisions* handed out a contract for parents and teens to sign.  The teens portion stated that if they drank they were to call their parents for a ride home...and the parents portion stated that they would not hassle or give the teens any punishment via the phone or that evening when tempers ran high.  Did this encourage teens to go out and get smashed...probably no more than would have normally.  Did anyone get on a soap box and preach that is was going to give teens the illusion that adults were supporting underage drinking NO.   

I don't think a kid who was going to not have sex until marriage would go out and lay down with the first opprotunity that came along just because they were presented with a condom.  I do feel that a kid who is presented with an opprotunity to have sex is far safer if they have a condom, because likely they may not go and buy one for themselves.   I personally feel if you aren't mature enough to buy a condom because you are too ashamed then you are too immature to have sex.  However I am speaking from adulthood, with more knowledge of actions and their consequences. 

It isn't okay for teens to have sex....but they are....not all of them...and it isn't because we hand out condoms...or we don't talk about abstinence enough.  If one kid having a condom prevents that kid from having a child in high school or getting AIDS at 16 yrs old then it was worth it.  

By saying that the abortion industy needs to thrive and that is why we want our child having condoms is just absurd.  We want to try to prevent teenage pregnancy...not promote it...if we wanted the abortion "industry" to thrive we would kids to go out have lots of sex and leave the condoms at home.  I would not even suggest handing out condoms without a proper sexual education class behind it to instruct the children not only on the proper use of a condom, but the physical, emotional, and pyschological ramifactions of having sex at such a young age.   To say that by handing out condoms in school is supporting the abortion "industry" is just adding controversial fuel to an already controversial fire. 

Personally I wouldnt want the school to give my kids condoms but that is because I myself want to make that option known to my children...and make sure we have open lines of communication and that if they need to talk about something important such as sex..they can come to me..they don't have to seek a neutral third party.  However...maybe when the schools send home forms asking permission to hand out medical attention or for permission to ATTEND the sexual education classes *which at least at my former school they did*  they can add an addedum on the permission slip..a little box:  Do you wish your children to be given condoms at the end of this lesson?  Yes or No.