To launch Hearts at Home’s newest book 10 Questions Kids Have About Sex, Pam Farrel is guest blogging all this week on talking to your kids about sex and relationships! You can find Pam online at love-wise.com.
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It was all the moms’ questions about how to talk to kids about sex after our packed workshops at Hearts at Home on our book, Red Hot Monogamy, that put the pressure on Bill and I to finally write the book that has been on our heart for so long.
We wanted to write a comprehensive guide that helps parents answer their kids’ relationship questions from the day they bring home their baby from the hospital to the day he or she walks down the aisle in marriage.
We looked forward to writing this long awaited book—however, when we were writing 10 Questions Kids Ask About Sex, it felt like the Emergency Broadcast System alarm was going off! In the area of sexuality, moral integrity, and fighting for the purity and futures of our children, we are in a state of emergency. This is not a test!
Every mom needs to read 10 Questions Kids Ask About Sex, when you consider just a few of the more startling statistics:
• Nearly half of U.S. high school students surveyed in 2011 had had sex, a third of them in the previous three months. Of these, almost 40 percent did not use a condom and 77 percent did not use birth control. About 15 percent of these students had had sex with four or more partners.
• Eighty percent of young adults raised in church (ages 18 to 29) say they have had sex before marriage. Of these, 64 percent have done so within the last year and 42 percent are in a current sexual relationship.
• In 2009, more than half of births to American women under 30 occurred outside marriage.
• Worldwide there are approximately 42 million abortions every year. In 2008 there were 2.21 million in the United States alone—that’s 3,315 every day.
• One woman in four will be sexually assaulted during her lifetime. Thirty-five percent of college men indicated that they would rape a woman if they could be assured of not getting caught.
• Adolescents and young adults are at the greatest risk for acquiring an STD. Approximately 19 million new infections occur each year, almost half of them among people aged 15 to 24.
• In 2009, young persons accounted for 39 percent of all new HIV infections in the US.
What the outcome of all this? 55 percent of the boys and 70 percent of the girls who had sex now say they wish they had not.
We can help our kids! We can rescue them from becoming a statistic. If we equip ourselves with books like 10 Questions Kids Ask About Sex and commit to being moms that care, we can team to turn the tide just like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers has helped lower drinking and driving in teens, just like cancer warnings have helped lower the rate of kids smoking. Together we can win—for our kids!
What about you? What is one thing your parents did that made a difference for you? What is one thing you WISHED your parents had done to lead you to understand sex and relationships?
