Sex and Kids???

I am absolutely horrified at the direction our society is going. It's all going DOWN HILL. CHILDREN are having sex and as a result are prone to HIV, AIDS, and other STDS. CHILDREN are having babies. Money, sex, partying, alcohol, and the degradation of women are being glorified. Middle schools are giving out birth control pills!!! What is that?!? Does NO ONE see a problem here?? I do. And it scares me. I look at my little brother and sisters and I am scared for them. It makes me want to lock them in their rooms until they're 25. But we all know that isn't the answer.

People put Bill Cosby on a stick and fried his behind for saying it. But I'm going to. Parents aren't doing their jobs. MTV, VH1, NBC, ABC, pookie n’ them, and the streets are raising our children today. It's horrible. I didn't stop playing with Barbies until my freshman year in high school! My first real kiss was at the end of my freshman year. A kiss. A KISS!!!! 8th graders today are having BABIES!!! My mother put FEAR in me. I was afraid to earn anything less than a B in school. I was afraid to lie to her. I was afraid to sneak out of the house. I was afraid to listen to certain music. And it wasn't because my mom was a monster. It was because that's how I was raised. I grew up in Montgomery, AL. I had an extremely tight-nit family. We kids were raised by everyone. I spent the majority of my childhood playing on the neighborhood streets at Grandma's house. And grandma's house wasn't in the best part of town. All around me were gangs, drugs, sex, and violence. I know this because I saw it first hand. My friends were experimenting with things. Of course, I was curious. I'm no angel. But the knowledge that my family instilled in me went with me.

I grew up in a black, single parent home in Montgomery, AL. We weren't rich. At one time, my mom worked 4 jobs. Statistically, I should have 5 kids by now. But I was surrounded by a mother, grandmother, and aunts who wanted to see me succeed. They didn't want to see me pregnant by 15. Parenting. That's what kept me on the right path.

I realize that times are harder. I realize that today, children are growing up with more influences. They can flip on the TV and catch a woman half naked, in a red bikini, barbequing while some artist feels on her and sings about how, “Shorty is a 10!” They can turn on the TV and listen to artists glorify "doubling up" with women after the club or celebrating coming home from prison by doing a "two-step" and sipping on Patron.

But what can have a counter affect on all of this? Parents. Family. Church. There is no foundation anymore. Proverbs 22:6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

There are no excuses for an 8th grader being on birth control. And to top it off, legally, the 8th grader has a right to do it without disclosing any information to their parents. A 13 year old is a CHILD! And a parent should be INVOLVED in EVERY aspect of THEIR Child’s LIFE! What sense does that make? We're making the problem worse. We're pacifying it. Instead of getting to the root of it, we go along with it. Be a part of your child's life! Say no! Ask questions! What business does an 8th grader have being left alone long enough to have sex? (I'm so heated right now.) I'm 24 and my momma still to this day asks me where I'm going or why I was out over night.

To those of you who have children, siblings, friends with children: Be involved. Be a role model. Children are not going to find it anywhere else. You don't want R Kelly singing about threesomes with random girls after a night out at the club being his role model. You don't want New York from "I Love New York" who is portrayed in the show kissing on anything, sleeping around, and cursing worse than my drunken uncle at a family reunion to be her role model. You don't want Cassidy celebrating his BLESSING of surviving a near fatal car accident and getting out of jail alive by dancing and getting drunk to be your child's role model. So, you be it. Forget being cool. Forget being a friend. Be a parent. Children learn from what you do just as much as they learn from what you say. Be a positive role model for the little ones around you so that when they are exposed to society, they know what is right and what is wrong. They'll know what to walk away from.

And yes, I realize that there are the stereotypical, "preacher's children" who are supposedly the worse in the bunch; who rebel, etc. There are going to be children who receive the best parenting and love in the world who still rebel. But I believe in the Word. And if the Word says to train up a child in the way they should go so that they never part from it, then it is so. The important thing is that they have something to come back to. They have that voice in them that says, “Maybe I shouldn't be doing this.”

Let's pray for our children. Let's pray for our parents and those in positions that are critical to the development of our children. Let’s pray for our society. Let's take some of the blame for what is going on. We can't continue to place all of the blame on Hip-Hop. We can't continue to place all of the blame on TV. We need to start doing more parenting and less blaming. While we're debating about who is to blame, our children are out doing more crap and being exposed to more nonsense. Be the positive in your child's life. Be the anti-drug, the anti-degrader of women, the anti-premarital sex, and the anti-partygoer. Be nosey. So what, your child is upset with you. I was angry at my mom my whole high school career! But I thank her now for her tough, snoopy love.