What would you do if your kid was sent out to buy condoms . . . on a school assignment?
If you're Linda Strobl, you take it to the Canadian newspapers in outrage.
The irony? Strobl is a public health nurse, who says it's OK to teach kids about sexually transmitted diseases. She's horrified, however, that her fourteen-year-old was directed by his class to A. buy condoms and B. participate in a contest to see who can put a condom on a wooden phallus.
Strobl told the National Post that her son came home complaining that he didn't want to do his health homework, embarrassed by the assignment.
Part of me is thanking my lucky stars, once again, that my daughter is still a pre-schooler, and I don't have to deal with this. HOWEVER, I'm still shocked that parents will profess how open-minded they are - hey, it's OK to teach about STDs - but in the end how impractical they are. Essentially, Strobl is saying they can teach kids about STDS but not actually help kids prevent them.
It's embarrassing to buy condoms for kids. I get that. Researching a post about actor Zac Efron's mom buying his condoms, I found surveys showing thirty percent of sexually active teens are too embarrassed to actually condoms. But with condoms still leading the pack in prevention of STDs (not to mention pregnancy), that's a hurdle every kid has to cross if they're going to have sex. And if they're not sexually active, I'd like to think that they're figuring out how to properly use a condom before they end up in the dark in the backseat of a car, fumbling with this thing and eventually tearing it because they just don't get it . . . and go ahead and have sex anyway because, hey, they're teens and they're infallible.
Is making a fourteen-year-old buy condoms really that bad? Is making a fourteen-year-old practice putting a condom on a fake penis really something to be horrified about? These are life skills, and skills that most teens still have a harder time taking a lesson on from Mom and Dad than they do an unrelated adult (like a health teacher).
There are a lot of occasions where embarrassing kids is potentially harmful to their psyches, but people get embarrassed. It happens. Sometimes, it's necessary. And until you practice something you're uncomfortable with, you're always going to be embarrassed.
In this case, an ounce of embarrassment is worth the pound of prevention.
Image: The Sun
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