I'm freakin' out as if I never was a teenager before and didn't think I knew everything and how to make my own decisions. The youngest of 6 siblings, I guess I never really understood the burden being a big sister was. Now, I have my niece who's entering high school this fall, a god-daughter to help raise, and my little sisters at church who in some way look up to me. We have to be careful not to automatically revert to the "yall are crazy" attitude like our parents had towards us when we starting talking about sex. Since I was 16, 17 years old, time has changed drastically. I don't even remember having a single conversation with my parents about sex. Even now, it's not so much a conversation, but more of a joking exchange between my sisters and mom and I. Talking about sex with the parents was just uncomfortable, and just not gonna happen. I was scared to death to tell my dad that my highschool boyfriend had asked me to the prom. A lot of things I was protected from back in the day was because of the fear that was instilled in me from a child. Somehow, this has lost its savour amongst this generation today...and it's certainly not their fault. But I realize that the approach of not talking about it is really flawed, unrealistic, and outdated for this generation. They may have worked then, but that was almost 10 years ago. From what I hear from the teenagers today, sex is a conversation that's always up for discussion. I could either revert back to my parents' way of addressing the issue (by not really addressing it), or use it as an opportunity to share and listen and let them make a conscious decision with the information they have received. Because whether us big sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers like it or not, teenagers are going to be curious, explore, and make their own decisions whether wrong or right. I just have to remind myself not to have a pre-heart attack when I hear one of my little sisters say, "I'm thinking about losing my virginity to this guy." If I panick, I lose them. God knows I'd like to panick, but in a day like today, that won't help. It's a custom for every new teenage generation to feel as though the older generation before them never knew what it was like to be a teenager. And now I finally understand why they feel that way. Cause we get older and start panicking. But we know that there's nothing new under the sun. It's the same game, the same roles, just different players with different faces. We gotta keep our cool. There are a lot of things I wish my parents were more open to discuss when I was younger, but they didn't. And I turned out ok. So, I'm not at all downgrading their strategy...but with that, I'm also aware that today we're facing a much bigger enemy and we have much more fighting to do to win this generation. And with God as my lead, I plan to win as many as I can.
l8r: ms pinky
1 comment:
I definitely hear u Faith. The only difference with me was at one point, I was the only child. Then, when my sister came along, it seemed like it was just somebody following me around and just watching me. At oine point, I had a really good impact on her. Eventually, when we get to a certain age, like u said they start to want to explore things. THe only thing with her was that I didn't see the whole being sexually active coming. So when I found out that it was a possibility, I literally felt like my heart dropped. But just to try to cut it short, some things she does I have to keep my cool and just remember that I was a teenager at one point.
Post a Comment