Do you/will you teach your children about safe sex and/or abstinence?

Both. I'll also tell them, when they go to college, that if they want to sleep around there's not much I can do to stop them, but if they bring a baby home for me to raise, I'll smother it. I'll smother the baby. Now that may sound cruel, but if it works she's not going to be rbingin home a baby. That is the goal.

If your willing to smother a baby, I have to ask what you plan to do to the boyfriend?

Hadn't really thought about it yet. I imagine I'd raise them in a way that the issue would be implicitly addressed by the society in which I was living.

Other: I don't know. I'm sure if I have children, then I might. But as of right now, I don't know.

She can bring it home to me then. I'll smother it in kisses.

both, but thats only if i end up having children to beging with. hey, i ve just barely turned 21, so the last thing on my mind is having kids. isnt that stuff like for 35 year-olds or something. hey, i might have kids one day, i might not.

anyway, to make sure that it will be someday, if it happends, and not any time soon, i guess i should practice what i will preach

btw: m/21/nola, duh!!

also, thats what the advanced stats are for, at least for the gender thing. it doest do such an awsome job with the age thing.

bta: it could be neither. hopefully by then, our public education system will teach our children about these things for us.

uhm, no need to punish the baby.

as far as the bf thing: i'd make those two take care of it on their own. and in my opinion, making a young emontially imature college dude take care of some annoying litte baby would be a lot worse than smutthering. why smuther him when you could do him much worse, like not smuthering the baby

My child is 12. She thinks boys are icky. She thinks sex is funny and icky. From the time she was very very little I was candid with her about sex and relationships and disease and pregnancy. When she decides to have sex she is armed with all the information she needs to protect herself from pregnancy and disease.
I think teaching abstinence goes against human nature and puts pressure and guilt and shame on young humans who are only doing what they are biologically wired to do.
My only wish is that they would make a condom to protect the heart.

I'm not going to have any kids, but if I were, I'd certainly consider that teaching them about sex would involve teaching them about safe sex, too, and I'd definitely talk with them about sex.

Safe Sex.

My child has grown-up I think he's 18 now and he knows to use a condom, I just hope he is.

Safe sex. Also, my daughter knows that I think positively about masturbation. The best protection is the general quality of discussing things (in general, not just sexual) from the earliest age: to be serious, witty, and honest, honest, honest. Why not admit (at a later stage) that the same person who is respected for properties considered as desirable by our society on the other hand may have sexual desires which the same society would just call perversions (if known )? I trust that this knowledge does help my daughter a lot indeed to find her own right mixture and balance between abstinence and (hopefully safe) sex. The question has never been to "teach safe sex or abstinence", but self-esteem, self-responsibility, self-acceptance - comprising gloomy corners by generally accepted standards (which we often take the liberty to smile at). People who know us what not believe what we sometimes talk about when nobody else is around. And we do use very plain words sometimes (rather unlike to what I have written here)!

both, if i had a child. it would be good if they would follow abstinence until they were sure they were in love or were sure this was "the person" that they wanted to have their first time but i am not naive' enough to think they will be strong enough or understand enough to stick to their ideals. so i would teach them about safe sex as well.

safe sex and self-respect

If I have children, I will certainly teach them about both; they should know all the options and be free to choose (although I would probably advocate abstinence while they were still young). There's always the chance that they will have sex at an age that I think is too young, and it would be irresponsible of me not to teach them about birth control. But they should also know that not having sex is OK, too, if they're not ready for it yet.
F, 29

No kids but I still feel strongly enuff to answer this. I would teach them safe sex. Male, middle-aged.

I will teach them safe sex. I doubt I will specifically teach them abstinence but I would teach them that sex is for a loving relationship and something best saved until it's at least legal.

I have no current plans to start sprogging though

I'm 19 and female.

I don't have children, I don't plan to ever have children. If I did, I would very likely teach them what my parents taught me; both. I would think it highly irresponsible of any parent to deliberately give their child less than all of the information available. I don't think that, by doing that, you would be doing them any favours.

Human sexuality is a complex topic. There are moral issues, there are health issues, there are other issues...All of these things should be discussed.

Simple really. I have a very large collection of kitchen knives that I'm not afraid to use. I'll do to his penis what Japanese chefs do to vegetables. >

And if it's your son that gets another girl pregnant? (Please don't say you'd slap him on the back and say "nice work, son!")

Two words; shotgun wedding. One, becuase it's the right thing to do, and 2, because, hey, these days most teenagers have shotguns anyway. Of course if he tries to bail on the kid I will have to confiscate his genitalia (tough love).

The right thing to do? Marrying someone you may well not love because you cocked up and got them pregnant? (No pun intended on the "cocked up" bit btw). Sure, don't let him walk out on the child, but I don't think that getting married just because there's a child involved is necessarily right.

I was kidding Biggs. Hopefully I'll riase my kid or kids right and this won't be a problem. But I don't mind telling you that, considering what I was like as a teenager, I DO NOT want to have a boy.

Age- 16 Sex- Female
If you don't teach you kids about this stuff then it's gonna be your fault when they come and say mom/dad i'm pregnant or I have HIV or I have hepititus from having unprotected sex with someone. And what are you gonna say? Sorry didn't think I needed to talk to you about sex.

Ha! That's why dad's are so protective of their daughters, surely? Because they remember the way that they used to look at girls!!!

Yep. It is the job of every father to keep our daughters away from guys like us.

Were I to have a child (which is highly unlikely), I would teach them the values of safe sex.

19 - Female

I plan to tell him about both, leaving him to choose for himself but hoping he chooses abstinence. I am 25 and female.

I would stress both. But I put forth this quetsion to everyone: Your daughter begins around the age of 13 in a joking matter says " What is a orgasim?" She asks it often. What do you tell her? Her first year in high school, she comes home and tells of a girlfriend having anal sex. She asks about this. Any good parent will go the safe sex route with you still must use a condom and plenty of lubrication so it does not tear. You can still catch STD's this way. But while being a good parent your daughter gets involved with a boy 2 years older than her. He involves her with drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, and sex. He uses all of these to control her and turns her against her family because he wants her out of the house and living with him. He controls her to the point where he convinces her to turn her parents in for abuse which never happened. They take situations like above and turn them in to a crime. You thought you were being a great parent teaching safe sex practicing to your child. Sorry folks the police see it as corrupting the morals of a child. Trust me here, I see and here teens everyday, their morals are corrupted by other teens in school worse that when I was in school in the late 80's.

Zang and romkey Only because I am curious...not judging at all ... I see more and more making the decision to not have children How old were you when you felt that you would not?..and have you ever left a relationship because your partner did wish for a child? and why the decision? (sorry if too personal)

I believe that children should be taught to take responsibility for their own actions.

I would discuss the safe sex things and explain their weaknesses. I would stress abstinence, because you can't get pregnant or STDs if you aren't doing what causes or spreads them.

Then there is the heart thing that was mentioned. How many have had sexual relationship after sexual relationship because their first encounters left them with an emotional void and an inability to say ''No'' when they truly did not want to be involved that way.

I will stop for now.

I'm gay... not that this precludes having children, but it certainly opens the door more to not having kids than being straight would... I've just never felt the desire to procreate, and my experiences with other people's kids have mostly reinforced the feeling that they'd annoy me too much

"smile" at annoy... I'm 32 (single) and over 1/3 of my closest friends (most older than me) have opted not to have children.
I envy and admire you for knowing what u wanted..(or did not want).. ..my mind just keeps me muddled

My children are 4 and 2 so I have plenty of time before I have to worry about teaching them about sex. When the time does come I plan to go with the safe sex route. Even if you teach kids to abstain they will eventually have sex even if they are married and they may not want to have children right away. And if they do have sex before they are married then they should know how to protect themselves from diseases and unplanned pregnancies.

You didn't teach your 4 year old about sex when the 2 year old was born? I was two and a half when my younger brother was born and I asked plenty of questions about where he'd come from!

Don't plan to have kids but If I did, I would teach them all ways and let them decide on their own when they need to.