Walking the Path

When I read articles about parents wanting to prevent their children from watching infommercials full of sexual inneuendo I have to think it’s a case of misplaced parenting.

Yes, kids should probably be prevented from seeing those types of ads when they are quite young, but parents should also be educating children about sex, puberty and the lot. Maybe then we would see figures such as 79% of China’s high school teens getting their ideas about sex from the Internet and 50% of pregnant teens in Shanghai being impregnated by boys they met on Internet — some not even knowing the guy’s name. This is the sort of stuff you get when only 7.9% of parents teach their children any form of sex education. I understand that China still sees itself as a conservative society, but this is getting out of hand, something has to be done or we’re going to having a lot of one child families with no father and a mother who didn’t finish high school.

Equally worrying to me, is stories such as this one from today’s Shanghai Daily. I’m sure the couples mentioned in the story really love each other now, but in two or three years or when a baby arrives will they be saying the same thing? I think not. They may have good intentions behind but later they may admit this was just an attempt to get away from mom and dad or to hold onto a great feeling that they didn’t have a lot of experience with before (due to strict supervision by parents and teachers, most teenagers in China don’t really have their first relationships until university).

It might be controversial to suggest this in China, but maybe the young couples should try cohabitation first. You’re taking a risk — realizing if you get in to a fight you’ll probably be sharing a bed with that person that night — by doing it, but you learn a lot about yourself and the other person in the process. Hopefully you’ll really learn if she/he is your better half or not (In my case, Winnie certainly is) and the process should give you the maturity you need to let you know when it really is time to marry that person.

Until next time.

J.