This fiasco went a long way in sinking Palin’s credibility.
I guess we should stop telling kids not to drink and drive.
They're also proof that not listening has consequences....but nevermind that.......
So the point of this article is that one’s children sometimes don’t listen to you. I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you. I had no idea teenagers could be so rebellious.
Abstinence education must be accompanied by the actual practice of abstinence. Bristol and Levi failed to follow half of the formula.
She made a mistake and acknowledges it as such. She clearly said that, learning from her mistake, kids should wait, while at the same time acknowedlging the unfortunate reality that in this day and age most kids her age aren't receptive for this message.
So does this mean that we shouldn't teach a good ideal because it is too often disobeyed? No! We should continue to teach good ideals, because they are right. But at the same time we should support those who made mistakes, while making it clear that they have to accept the consequences and responsibilities.
THIS is the essence of her statements.
My father gave me a good reason to never get a young girl in trouble. It’s called a knuckle sandwich.
If my understanding of the timing is correct, Bristol snuck out for sex while mom was busy having a baby of her own. It is great to teach children to abstain. It is better to help them live up to their pledge by being a responsible parent and not providing situations where they can “slip up.”
My high school had an abstinance only program to which I totaly agreed, but my junoir year there were 4 pregnant girls in my US history class alone.
Aside from getting her networks mixed up, a pretty good article. Kids are only human.
Abstinence: Responsible self-control.
Abortion: “Guiltless” irresponsibility.
Abstinence doesn’t work for everyone.
OTOH, abortion kills...every time.
SEX is preached EVERYWHERE today....it’s saturated into children....sure people got pregnant in the 50’s (and before)....but usually they got married and made a family! Now....the “culture” says...have sex...don’t get married....do what pleases YOU....I still can’t figure out why Bristol and the father have NOT married....there is no excuse, unless they never plan(ned) to.
I’m wondering if anyone can give me a cite where Sarah Palin said she believes in “abstinence only” education. I have heard this said by people attacking her, but never from her. Could this be propaganda?
“.....I’m pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I am not anti-contraception. But, yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don’t have a problem with that. That doesn’t scare me, so it’s something I would support also.”
Sarah Palin, 2006 radio interview
I’m really disappointed to see Pajamas Media pushing this tired old slur.......
"Which antler shall I hang your scrotum from, son?"
Mom + video of live child birth = Abstinence Education (for her)
"Episiotomies are fun, dear!"
It was easy to teach no sex before marraige when most people got married at 15-20 years old. Now we expect them to go to college, make a career and never have sex until they are near 30.
While I think teen sex is entirely too young, I think it’s silly to not explain the concept of contraceptive. Not that it will always work, but by God let them know that is an option. While explaining why it’s better to wait, let them know that getting pregnant is beyond irresponsible. As I said, not that it always works.
Just my opinion and reflection on my years in high school. Maybe I just went to a ‘bad’ high school.
And also as a terrified mother of three girls, two of which are teens.
One cannnot teach abstinence the way one teaches algebra. On the other hand, kids fail to learn the lessons of abstinance for the same reason they fail to learn algebra: too many other kids think it is impossible, or even unnatural—weird, in other words.
Fifty years ago, BTP, most kids felt the same as they do today, and boys tried to do pretty much what they do to day, but for boys the idea was that if one has sex with anyone except a whole, one ought to think —at least—of marriage. Most girls also thought of marriage, but there was also the fear of pregnancy, and the shame attendent to being an unwed mother. There was also the shame attendent to boys of shame at getting a girl pregnant when marriage was no practical option.
I went to a Catholic boys High School and learned the greatest lesson about pre-marital sex imaginable — all the priest told us was the approximate cost to raise a child to the age of eighteen.
I’m always so glad when threads like this get posted to see all of the perfect people who haunt Free Republic
I’m glad to be surround by those who never made a youthful mistake and always did the right thing, even when lack of experience and wisdom made other, less prefect creatures falter.
It’s so nice to hear how they have never had one of their children stumble because their perfectness has been inherited by their offspring.
Gosh, aren’t we all lucky to have these paragon of virtues here to remind the rest of us just how imperfect we are, or may have been when we were young. And how if one of our children makes a mistake, it’s because we’ve been such awful parents who may have actually forgiven (horrors) our children when they made a mistake.
The issue as I see it is Mother Nature’s fault, although it seems no one consulted her about raising the age requirement of sexual maturity or asked permission to change it from her designated time.
Society decided that the age level must be raised to 18 or 20 yrs of age to allow education and other developments that were not figured into Mother Nature’s original schedule and expect as usual that their decision is enough to change the bodies natural urges and desires. As the old TV commercial used to say “ It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature”
Most of our Grand Parents or Great GP’s were 14 -16 years of age when they were married and started families, I’m not disagreeing with the decision or the need to further education and other maturities before marriage or sexual contact or to extend the age of starting a family; just that the body was designed to be active in the years after puberty by nature and it’s not easy for man to curtail an urge that strong with just his abstinence requirements.