I'm the father of teenage girls 17 and 15. I live in pathetic CT. I'm trying to be the father that prempts this kind of situation. My wife is taking the 180 degree opposite viewpoint on many of my initiatives. Help/feedback please.
The state of CT allows teen girls to get birth control and abortion and completely denies the parents notification. They will inject the birth control in the kids arm and leave the parents in the dark. As a Christian this is totally beyond our belief system. I feel that one of the parents should be monitoring a daughter's menstrual cycle and keeping a discrete log. This would possibly allow us to detect the first level of activity - I believe that most birth control methods will tamper with the woman's cycle. A pregnancy/abortion should definitely get flagged that way.
My wife thinks I am medling too much. Does this above approach sound like a reasonable approach. Yes, we talk with our girls but hormonal pressure has been known to override many people's will.
Feedback please. Private if you desire.
I understand wanting to "pre-empt" a teenage pregnancy, rather than dealing with it after the fact.
My first impression is that keeping a "log" of a daughter's menstrual cycle is very intrusive. Frankly, if your wife is not willing to do it, I don't know how you would, successfully. When I was a teen (about 14), I was put on the pill to GIVE me a cycle - I was only having one about every four months, and they would knock me flat when they showed up. This was back around 1970, so dosages were higher than they are now.
If you are thinking about monitoring cycles, it sounds like you are having trouble talking to your daughters directly. Nothing substitutes for direct communication. If I had ever found my father rooting through my trash looking for used menstrual products, the feeling of being spied on would probably have ruined our relationship forever. That's just my opinion.
You can reply to me privately if you wish.