if you watch tv, whether it is on hulu, the tube, flatscreen, or even a movie, this car commercial has been on, i'm sure. it begins with a man's voice explaining that babies of all kinds (humans, monkeys, dogs, etc) come from a baby planet, they fly in spaceships and are parachuted into the homes. it's a funny take, but proves a point. it gets even more rough when the dad finishes, and the 6 or 7 year-old-kid says something along the lines of, "but billy down the street said that babies come when a mommy and a daddy love each other very...." and the dad quickly tells the car to play wheels on the bus (to sell the cool features of the car...). the song plays, the parents look at each other with the expression of "fewf, that was a close one...dodged that bullet." and the care goes off into the sunset with no explanation of sex, love, or about the creation of families.
okay, i know what you're thinking...it's a freakin' car commercial. of course they aren't going to dive into a topic like that. but as i stated earlier, it proves a point. we, as a culture in the united states, do not talk about sex.
why is it that parents and families don't feel comfortable talking about sex? why has society made it such a hush hush subject? understandably, it is a sacred thing, but that does not mean that it is not talked about. would parents rather have their children learn about it from their friends who know what they do from older mislead kids? or worse, from kids looking at pornography or have a real disturbed idea of sex, procreation, and bodies? children are constantly curious about their bodies, and then questions like "where do babies come from?" come along, and then they are teenagers and they really should feel comfortable talking about personal matters with their parents (that is what parents want right? to have a close enough relationship with their children that the children can come to them with any concerns whether it be school, church, and especially something as sacred as their body and sex).
many would believe that this is just a problem in the LDS culture, but they are unfortunately wrong. I have talked several of my friends that are Christians and Jews and their parents rarely, if ever, talked to them. how do we fix this idea that sex is bad, that it shouldn't be talked about ever, and that it's too embarrassing to discuss with family? how do we educate but not too much that it does more damage than harm?
It's ironic, because as a society we are so embarassed to talk to our children about sex, but we let the media do it for us. Sex is EVERYWHERE on TV and this is the real sex education teacher of today!
ReplyDeleteKev, you know how I feel about this. I totally agree, it's crazy that parents aren't taking the time to sit down and educate their children. Yes I know it won't be the most comfortable of conversations, but it needs to happen. We wouldn't want them looking it up on the internet, so we need to make them feel comfortable to talk to us about such a matter.
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