[freerepublicchat]

In the distant past, teens would have sex in dad's house, but as a married couple, and any children that were created were quickly integrated into a larger family. The young couple would eventually leave the home to build their own, but for a time, they lived with a parent.

Wealthy European families would sometimes call on a young man of good stock to be with a daughter so as to insure her coupling would yield a healthy, intelligent child. Left to her own, she might join with a lesser boy.

Even today a similar thing happens in some countries under an arranged marriage system.

I'm not sure what the answer is. My feeling is that any new social rules ought always be made in such a way that they harmonize with God (or nature, or higher power, etc).

I know that anything is preferable to what we have now -- girls and boys making kids they can't take care of, that go on to make more girls and boys they can't take care of. It's out of control and the country is filling up with base born products of base beds. Chicago is full of out of control youth that are killing each other.

Adults need to be more involved with guiding reproduction and sex because teens, if left to themselves, are not always going to make the right choices, and society at large will pay a price.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Age of puberty has declined to approx. 12.

Age of typical first marriage is now in the 30’s (after we get a career on track and get the student loans under control.)

Is that a problem? Sure. HuffPo is proposing an absurd remedy though.

I married at 24 and my wife was 20. Not being Mormons, most around us thought that to be absurdly young. But perhaps that is a discussion worth having.