Should teenagers be allowed to have sexual sleepovers with their boyfriends or girlfriends?
In America, most parents are saying a resounding NO, yet teen pregnancies are at a whopping 40% and only getting higher. But in Europe, many parents are saying YES and have found a way to keep teen pregnancy under 5%. Hmmm…
American parents are under the naive belief that telling teens not to have premarital sex while using religious arguments to back it up is working. But as statistics show, it is not! The concept of remaining a virgin until marriage is unrealistic and outdated, particularly since many Americans are getting married much later in life, if at all. For parents to ignore the racing hormones of their teen aged children, and to ignore that teens can and will find ways to have sex regardless of parental warnings is a failure.
In Europe, parents have acknowledged that sexual activity begins well before marriage. So instead of fooling themselves into believing their teens are not having sex, they’ve actually taken an active role in it. Parents have been able to have open and honest conversations with their teens about their sexual feelings. They’ve been able to provide their teens with condoms, birth control pills and other methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And by providing a conjugal environment for their older teens in monogamous relationships to practice safe sex, European parents have nearly eradicated teen pregnancy and the threat of sexually transmitted disease.
Critics say that American parents are still under a 1950’s belief that a majority of teens are remaining virgins until marriage. These same parents may also be following religious concepts of abstinence that are far from foolproof. By not talking about sex and by believing teens are waiting to be sexually active, American parents are betting on a reckless “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. Which way is right?
