Posted by
Young Republican on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 10:04:09 AM
First of all even though I am an Obama supporter, I am so excited about Sarah Palin being the VP choice of McCain. She is a brillant wonderful woman who I personally like very much. While I think at the last moments, he should have picked Carly Fiorina, Palin was a far better choice than either Lieberman, Pawlently, and espically Romney. Good job, Senator!
I also have a personal note to mention: I'm an uncle! My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, named Jake, (actually name Jacob, but Jake is so cool). I love that name. He is as cute as can be.
Now for the acutal post:
For far too long in America we have been told that we can have it all. In the media and culture many people are living their lives with far too much going on. Many people talk about the juggling act, Americans do which leads to the obvious conclusion that if you juggle long a ball will eventually fall. I say all of this with the news of Sarah Palin's daughter being pregnant being in my mind.
My father has been out of the picture for a long time and as the oldest child I have a very, very close relationship with my siblings. I love them so much. I also steped in as the father role, trying to protect them from a world that seeks to harm them far too often. So when my 17 year old sister got pregnant at 16, I took it hard. I took it as I know Sarah Palin did, as a moral failure not on our family members but on ourselves.
Teenagers are teenagers and if you have a perfect one count your blessings. They don't think of the long term consequences and we as parents and/or guardians need to realize it. I told my sister that if she needed any birth control at all I would buy it for her no questions asked no secrets told. She told me she was a virgin. I believed her. She lied. Why? Because kids lie, good kids, bad kids. It's ok because we love them no matter what they do. Often times they want to live up to our expectations and lie to keep an image that isn't true.
We as a nation have become lazy in our parenting and I say this not to say that we are lazy but that we don't put our child first. Often times, we put our careers as our primary focus. And we've allowed ourselves to become the "cool parent" instead of just a "parent" and all the negative conantation that implies.
We need to get back to traditional parenting, such as forbiding our kids from dating until age 16. And when they do date to make sure it is in a public place, that they are with family at home, and that a chaparone is with them at all times except when in a public place. All old fashioned, all out of date, all sure fire ways to keep your child for becoming pregnant.
And if all of this seems like to much, or not possible putting your dating children on birth control is a step every parent should take. Pills are an option but I'm more in favor of the shot that makes you infertile for three months. Now people will say shouldn't I trust my daughter, I know she is good. I trusted my sister, a girl who is one of the sweetest people I know, who I taught Sunday School with for years. No, you can't.
We need to take back parenting. In a modern time it's time to turn back to old fashioned dating values and to use modern medicine to make sure we finally end the plague of teenage pregnancy.