Is College This "Sexy?"

JHS
Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:19:40 +0000

What’s with the tone, StickerShock? I didn’t say anything about STDs.

The OP was professing shock over the stories he was hearing from his son about how “sexy” college was, compared to the OP’s experience in our generation. I don’t think much has changed. There was sex then, and sex now, immaturity then and immaturity now, and no one has invented a new way to Do It. The OP was also asking whether he should “prepare” his 12th-grade daughter for it. Of course, people should help their children be moral, responsible people, but if you haven’t started by spring of their senior years, you’re probably running late for that.

Mapesy said, in effect “It’s true! It’s true!” and cited a study that said (a) 40% of girls 14-19 have had sex at least once, and (b) about 19% of them have HPV infection. While that should be a wake-up call to any parent who is on the fence about HPV vaccination, it isn’t exactly evidence that your 18-year-old is likely to be innocent about what she may encounter in college. And the story cited said nothing about frequency of sex, number of partners, or any of the other indicators that might get people wound up and believing that there’s something new under the sun.

I think jonri’s post is great, too. Despite the obvious fact that I come at this from a slightly different moral direction, I do not encourage my kids to have sex, much less indiscriminate, irresponsible sex. I want them to take personal responsibility for their actions, and to understand that sex involves an awful lot of personal responsibility – even if no one gets pregnant.