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  • ONE TO READ

    Filed at 8:29 am under by dcobranchi

    A really good Op/Ed in the NYT today. Neither of my girls have really discovered boys yet. Thank God.

    5 Responses to “ONE TO READ”


    Comment by
    COD
    January 13th, 2008
    at 9:41 am

    Thank God, or thank dance?


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    January 13th, 2008
    at 10:26 am

    Home education, I think. Lydia was at the mall the other day and noticed lots of “couples” in the 10-11 age group wandering around holding hands. Anyone know of any 10-year-old HEKs that act that way?


    Comment by
    JP
    January 13th, 2008
    at 7:22 pm

    Yes – There are a few in our co-op who are trying to do the couple thing. The biggest pusher of it had a teen mom in her house because the teen’s parents kicked her out when they found out she was pregnant. She also spends a lot of time with public school friends, and she’s easily peer-led.


    Comment by
    RedMolly
    January 15th, 2008
    at 12:58 am

    I don’t know. I don’t think getting all nostalgic for the good ol’ Victorian days of yesteryear is really doing anyone any favors. Our “ancestors’ deep commitment to girls,” remember, largely entailed denying them the right to own property/vote/earn wages/pursue unwomanly things like education and careers.

    Maybe what our kids, HEK and PSEK alike, need is less handwringing and more information. Information about the consequences sex has for both boys and girls; information about how to avoid pregnancy and disease; information about the deep emotional undercurrents that necessarily accompany sexual activity; information about how our culture has been sexualized for the purpose of selling more product and how it’s each person’s responsibility to come to terms with that commodification of sex.

    (That said, the nail in the coffin for Fisher’s public school career was his bringing home a Weekly Reader worksheet on Britney-freakin’-Spears. Your tax dollars at work.)


    Comment by
    Nance Confer
    January 15th, 2008
    at 2:03 pm

    My 13-yo DD noticed this behavior in a friend’s neighbor. Younger than DD, the girl is on her 2nd (I think) “boyfriend.” In quotes because I’m not sure what it entails really. But it includes enough hand-holding for DD to notice and comment about how inappropriate it is and that it must be the girl trying to “keep up” with her older teenage sisters.

    Our up-close-and-personal example of how not to make babies is, of course, our much-beloved great-nephew.

    He’s terrific.

    His parents. . . completely inadequate to the task of parenting on more levels than should ever be visited on a child.

    So, our two young teens have had the “opportunity” to see the ripple effect that an additional life has on an entire family in these circumstances. And how much work, time and money it takes to take care of one baby.

    Maybe that will be part of their understanding of the need to use birth control?

    Nance