Sex Education- Should it start at home or left to someone else?

     This morning I was browsing the Blogher  site and stumbled across an interesting question.... to educate our teenage girls about birth control.  I suppose that I have an interesting take on this subject because I was the product of a teen pregnancy myself.   Yes, I will honestly say that I have a more liberal view of parenting.  Believe it or not, my view is actually more liberal than that of my own mother.  Let me start by saying that my mother is 16 years older than me and I am 21 years older than my daughter.  Granted I have a college education and was able to finish my last year of college despite being pregnant. 


I'm terminally liberal in the rearing of my biological and step-children.  I believe that the more you deny and withhold (be it things they wish to do or things you don't think they need to know) those things come to be more desirable.  I'm not saying that I'm going to put a gun in my son's hands just because he wants one.  But I will share with him the consequences of guns and how damaging they can be.  I'm not going to give any of my children alcohol but will share with them the negative consequences that have directly affected our family.  Just like with my biological daughter and sex.  We have had conversations about sex and the consequences.  I'm not going to brush under the rug the fact that two of her 8th grade classmates were pregnant last year. 


Statistically the odds are against our daughters if we choose not to educate them and for that matter our sons who will be the ones copulating with other people's daughters.

• Every year around 750,000 teenagers will get pregnant. 
• Depending on the state, teenage birth rates are incredibly different. Nevada has the highest rate: 113 per 1000 and North Dakota the lowest 42 per 1000. 
• Unmarried teenagers having children account for 24 percent of all unmarried expectant mothers. 
• More than 2/3 of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate from high school. 
• Billions of dollars are spent taking care of teenage mothers and their children and they are more likely to be in the poverty bracket. On the flip side, millions of dollars are spent in prevention programs.

Oh Where Oh Where Does the Time GO???!?!?!?!

    I feel like summer just began a few days ago but now it is time to go back into the classroom and start getting ready for next school term to begin.  In a few short weeks it will be time again to go back to the grind and I'm going to go kicking and screaming.  This is the same old song and dance every summer and you would think that by now I would be ready for the inevitable.  "NO!" I emphatically scream.  Even though I may have a few weeks left I still have the strong urge to lay on the ground and have a two-year old tantrum.  
    The reason why this is a blog topic is because I decided to drag my lazy carcass to the school to see how much damage had been done.  You see this is not going to be a normal start of a school term because our school has moved to a new (old old ancient) building.  The walls are covered in dried up hot glue, the carpet is stained and dirty, and the tiles are just plain gross.  There is an upside to this move though,  sadly this will be the first year that my students will have access to a play ground.  For special needs students a play ground has to be set up a little bit differently from play grounds for other students.  Because I have students who are known "runners"  we have to have a secure fence and equipment suited to their needs.  So despite the unappealing state to the building and our new room, the play ground holds great promise for my students and my staff members.  
     Now I have to attend to all of the paint that I'm finding in strange places.  I look forward to next  week and getting the job finished so we can get to the joyous task of unpacking boxes and finding proper homes for everything.

Sometimes.....

     Sometimes I wish that I was something or someone else.  Who doesn't?  I'm sure that we can all say that there has been at least one moment in all of our lives that we have made this wish.  The funny thing is that I have no idea what/who I would rather be.  No matter what/who you are there is always a down side.  So, I should be putting on my "big girl knickers" and just deal with what/who I am. 

     Today is one of those rare days that all of there children are somewhere else.  Normally I would be elated but being between pay checks that makes us flat broke.....I have crocheted dish cloths for my mom and grandmother and need to finish one more.  I have sewn all of the patterns that I own so no sewing to be had today.  I have counted $52 in silver coins (for what purpose I do not know).  Dishes have been put away and dirties have been loaded into the dishwasher.  I really should be making the weekly grocery list (since the kids have been here and there I have not done regular grocery shopping for TWO whole weeks) and meal planning since my dad and step-mother will be coming in for the weekend.  I dread that in some ways but in other ways I think it is good for my children to be able to get to know them better.  We only see them one to two times a year, which is really sad when you think about it in that way.  I'm not really all that close to my father and have not been for a really long time.  That's a story for another day. 

        This upcoming weekend will involve the hub working most of the weekend and me doing the majority of the entertaining.  They are my family so it's all fair.  He did help me last week by encouraging me to finally get a new bed (we've been sleeping on mattresses on the floor for the past two years) and getting new living room furniture.  All old furniture was donated but I was really embarrassed that our old couch really smelled doggy-liscious!  Yuck!  But since Hub is working most of the weekend meal plans need to involve something other than the grill....the last time I tried to do the grill was a complete and total disaster.  I'm still wondering how I escaped without burning my hair.....  I didn't realize that you should push the button with the lid DOWN!  I almost went up in the POOF of curly hair....There is a god out there and he watches over me!!!! 

          Okay I've blogged my complaints and made a bloggy list of things that I need to get accomplished!  The dogs are both snoring, the sky is grey, and the thunder is rolling....NAPTIME!!! Yeah right!