Geoffrey, muh man, I've just said a quick prayer for your girl. To alert a child to the changes they will undergo is one thing. To present perversions as simply sexual diversity is reprehensible. As things are going now, don't be surprised if she winds up pregnant early with the very decisions she didn't need to make and wouldn't have to if she was taught to put sex in it's proper place.
First of all, one person's perversion is another's Friday night frolic. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. More to the point, I find it fascinating that there are so many people concerned with how other people raise their children. I have indicated that we are working for an open line of communication with our children on this issue, and that we are teaching our daughters that "difference" does not equate with "wrong" - and somehow, Marshall decides to warn me that because of that, my daughter is going to get pregnant.
If she does, you know what, Marshall? We will be there with her every step of the way. We will not judge, we will not be angry, we won't be disappointed, we will give her as much help as we can, and we will never, ever stop loving her. That, however, is hardly the issue.
Why, on God's green earth, is it wrong to tell children that people are people? Why, on God's green earth, is it wrong to tell children that love is far better than deciding how other's are to live?
I want to tell a story out of school, as it were. I hope I will be forgiven for this, but I will not use names to protect the innocent. In March of 1989, my youngest sister, living in Massachusetts with her boyfriend, called our house. She talked to my mother for close to two hours. She had not contacted my parents for three months, and we found out why that evening - she was pregnant, and terrified of my parents' reaction. My parents' reaction? As I was standing in the kitchen when my mother and father talked about this, I can give a first-hand account - Is that all? My mother added, "I thought it might be that" for good measure.
That child is a freshman on a full-ride scholarship to Dartmouth College, studying chemistry right now.
The point of this little family anecdote is simple - I learned how to raise my children, and love them no matter what, and accept their mistakes, from two people I admire more than any others - my parents, Daniel and Virginia Safford. I honestly don't think anything Marshall has said, or will say, about raising children, can compare to the lesson I learned that March evening eighteen years ago. However, I open this discussion to other parents out there - DL, ER, Jim, Sis - for their input.
