Sex has always been and will always be a complex topic for many people. Having sex is frowned upon in many countries but it’s worse if you’re not married. Today, in the United States, we are taught about sex and we can ask for birth control. Being taught sex is something that most of our older family members didn’t receive the opportunity to learn about sex in schools. At times sex wasn’t even brought up as a topic to their children, because it was seen as unlogical and disgraced upon. After all, many people from third world countries don’t have the money or time to talk to a doctor about sex.
Now, sex isn’t seen as a disgraceful thing, but more about a beautiful part of life we explore throughout our lifetime. The information there is on birth control products has grown, which helps a lot of young girls figure out the best fit for them. Sadly, in health classes, you aren’t taught about the complex part of sex. Instead, you learn about the biological factor of sex and how to use a condom before sex. Many teens are having sex and without the right knowledge of sex. There are issues that come with having unprotected sex like sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, and rape. Parents are responsible to educate you about sex because they are the ones you spend most of your time with. My mother is a woman born in Nicaragua and she’s told me that sex is something that was never taught or talked about in my mother’s country. This surprised me because here we learn about sex in fifth grade if your parents allow it. Personally, my mother didn’t tell me much about sex. I only learned about sex at school in the fifth grade. Then one thing she did tell me was how painful sex would be the first time and that blood would come out. As I went to school I learned it is painful but not all women bleed during their first time. Since then I haven’t talked to my mother about sex. One interesting thing is that my little brother an eleven-year-old hears music about sex, drugs, drinking, and money. Music with sex will have a big impact on the child’s life as Carolyn C. Ross from Psychology Today provides how “Research has long established that teens who watch movies or listen to music that glamorizes drinking, drug use or violence tend to engage in those behaviors themselves”. When listening to this music my little brother believes that almost all girls are gold diggers or hoes. The music has educated him more than my mother has. If our parents don’t educate us on sex others will teach us the wrong of sex. Friends will tell boys that girls are only good for sex and look at their bodies as objects to play with.
. Many sex-ed classes don’t teach about sex, but in abstinence and how dangerous it is to have sex. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, a fact-finding organization that educates on sexual and reproductive health, shows the percentage of abstinence being shown in school. Landy DJ from Alan Guttmacher Institute wrote on abstinence promotion and the provision of information about contraception in public schools. She found that “Among the 69% of public school districts that have a district-wide policy to teach sexuality education, 14% have a comprehensive policy that treats abstinence as one option for adolescents in a broader sexuality education program”. There is a tremendous gap in comprehensive sex being taught, students aren’t going to be abstinent at least not all of them. By mostly teaching abstinence, many will began to wonder about sex and without the proper education on sex, they could be putting themselves in danger. Teens don’t know much about consent and while being uninformed they could be involved in a rape situation. Considering, many teens don’t know about consent they wonder, if they wanted to engage in sex or if they were pressured to do so.
For parents, it will be a bit difficult and embarrassing to explain about the birds and bees complex, but parents have to understand that the embarrassing moment is only for the best of their child’s safety. By parents gradually introducing their child into sex, their child will have a trustful relationship with them. Not only will they have more trust but it also helps teens by decreasing the chances of rape, sexually transmitted diseases, and teen pregnancies. Teen pregnancies are one of the highest impacts there is, Kathryn Kost, Vice President for Domestic Research/Director of Domestic Research and Stanley Henshaw, author of over hundred journal articles and book chapters correlated to abortion both did research on the U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births, and Abortions, 2010: National and State Trends by Age, Race, and Ethnicity
Many young women after or during school would encounter unwanted pregnancies but, “In 2010, roughly 625,000 women younger than 20 became pregnant. Some 614,000 pregnancies were among teenagers (women aged 15–19), and another 11,000 were among those aged 14 and younger”. The girls could’ve learned about the protection they should use before having sex but because of the lack of the school system and parents have so many girls get pregnant. Parents have a big influence on their child’s life as children learn by watching and listening to their parents. As well if your child becomes unsure about sex or having issues when it comes to sex they have you to confide in you. The main topic that tends to not be talked about is masturbation and sex toys. Conservative families won’t open up to talk on sex toys or masturbation because it’s seen as a sin. There aren’t many instructions on what you can do with your private parts or how to clean the sex toy. This will be a hard thing to talk about if your not comfortable with this topic if you want your children to not be having sex why not get them a sex toy and show them how to clean it so they don’t get an infection. In doing so they might not even want to have sex because they have a way to compensate for the sex. This way you also know they are being careful and don’t end up at risk of sexually transmitted diseases.
Parents should talk to their kids because by doing so they can explain to their children about what they help their child will do and what they shouldn’t. I know a lot of parents who weren’t born in America and don’t think your child should be having sex till marriage. However, some teenagers are rebels. They won’t listen and this is when teens become involved in the dangers that come from sex. Personally, my mother knew I had to take birth control because of my period being fourteen days long. She completely disagreed but I told her it was the best thing for me health-wise. I ended up taking birth control pills and I got them confidently because that way you don’t have to pay fifty dollars for the pills and that’s paying for them every 3 months. My mother saw an increase in my weight and she told me to stop taking the pills because they were making me gain weight. I know the pill helped me a lot with cramps so of course, I kept taking them. Most girls don’t have the opportunity to get birth control because they don’t have insurance to pay for it or they can’t receive transportation to go to their health care facility. Parents could take their kids to their Healthcare facility and make sure their child is receiving the proper care when it comes to finding the right birth control, after all, there are so many different forms of birth control. Boys mostly have condoms and supposed stickers that stop sperm from coming out. That’s why parents need to tell their kids about how the male stickers don’t protect them in any way and could end up causing an unwanted pregnancy for the partner. Most teens don’t understand much about how sex can be transmitted and even if it’s not always sexually, parents do have more experiences and can tell their children about the difference in STDs.
Ultimately, parents are responsible when it comes to educating their children on sex because they’ve become aware of sex long before we have. We learn from our parents as kids and as we grow because we stay with them for eighteen years during that time they influence us with their decisions
A Dance With Pain 