Teaching our children about sex

Everyday there are reports of newborns found dead in the ditch, babies thrown out from windows, and those rescued from the gutter.

I suppose we really cannot say whose fault it is, because deep down I think we are just more afraid that it might happen to us, and we pray hard that it doesn't. Yes? No? Well, I always pray that this doesn't happen to me, my family, my friends and those close to me.

But the truth to the matter is that things will remain as they are for as long we too remain unchanged. Do we talk to our children about sex? The truth, not the fairytale. Do we tell them about condoms and other contraceptives?

There is sex everywhere around us in our present time. On TV, on YouTube, on the phone, in songs, in magazines and books, everywhere, and all are very easily accessible. Youngsters even have the audacity to make out right there in broad daylight right smack in front of everyone on the LRT!

My husband mocks me every time I tell him that he must start preparing himself to tell our boys about the birds and the bees, and impress upon them the beauty of the condom. Well, the truth is, I think it will be me who will give this talk to my boys eventually. Or, I will give them books and make sure they read them! But I know I can and will be open with them about this.

No doubt we do our best to educate our kids towards the right path, to do the right things, and to steer far from all wrongs. But at the end of the day, our children are humans too. They will have curiosities, they will want to experiment and they will do things we tell them not to do. I believe my boys will grow up to be good, insyaAllah, but I also do not discount the fact that there is a big enough chance they will end up doing the wrongs which they know perfectly well are wrong, simply because they just want to know how it feels and see what happens after that, not because they are bad children.

Some people say we must help these young girls who sadly get pregnant out of wedlock, help them to see things through and then help to show them the way to a better future, because this is better than to see babies being thrown into garbage bins everyday. Yes, this is good, if we do it pure heartedly and sincerely. How many of us can truly, truly be sincere about this?

And these days, people are promoting the HPV vaccine to female teenagers, in the effort to prevent cervical cancer. But are they educating these girls about HPV? About how the virus is transmitted?

Last night I watched Law & Order SVU, about teenage girls prostituting themselves in return for branded clothes and the glamorous life, and many end up contracting HIV, HPV and all sorts of STDs. Scary, very scary...

So, I do advocate sex education for children, when the time is right, of course; parents/grown ups must know when the time is right. I mean, sex is something good, right? For one thing it gave us our children...