Grand Rapids Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Bristol Palin & Levi Johnston: engaged!
Hmmm... did anyone else see this coming? You mean a 19 year old is going to do exactly what her mother DOESN'T want? Shocking.
Re: Bristol Palin & Levi Johnston: engaged!
Only after she has two or three more kids. The whole family is ridic.
Did anyone see any of the news about the author that moved in next door to the Palin's to do research on them for his book?
This made me gigglesnort.
Soooo call me ignorant, but I don't even understand how she could launch an abstinence campaign. Obviously she wasn't practicing it, as a teen I don't think I'd be swayed to not have sex coming from someone who'd done it and had a baby to show for it. Now a safe sex campaign, that would be a little more believable...
Maybe it was a "learn from my mistake" sort of thing? Like, "Don't have sex.... or you'll get a baby!".
I have no idea, really.
I viewed it as more of a "you can learn from my mistake" sort of thing. If I had been the kind of teen that looked up to celebrities/public figures more, I think it would have been decently effective for me. So...I can see the merit in it.
I feel like I should employ the adage "If you can't say anything nice..."
Sarah Palin drives me bonkers. I won't even click the link to the article because I refuse to give any credence to her "celebrity."
Abstinence-only education also drives me bonkers. Bristol Palin and her out-of-wedlock pg only serve to reinforce the idea that abstinence-only education doesn't work very well.
I am so fracking tired of hearing about these people.
Eh, not to open a can of worms, but hearing people say this drives ME bonkers.
I do believe that it has merit, primarily among faith-based communities where it is tied into religious belief about the sacredness of the body and of intercourse. If I had children and I sent them to a Christian school, I would expect that it teach the same values that my church and personal convictions hold.
I think this is a reasonable expectation.
However, I do think it's a problem when abstinance only education finds it's way into public schools.
Hmmm... this has inspired a new discussion topic for me. I'll start a new thread.
I think abstinence education is an important part of sex education. I think it is important to say that the only safe sex is no sex. I think it is fine for educators and parents to frame appropriate sex within the context of their beliefs (i.e. waiting until marriage). However, even when tied to faith-based communities, kids are not always going to stay abstinent no matter what they are taught for a variety of reasons.
To share my personal experience, I was raised on the idea of waiting until marriage and went to Christian schools that taught the same thing. I didn't even wait until I had finished high school. A few of my friends also had sex during high school. I don't know that any of them waited until marriage.
In my opinion, abstinence-only education often creates an environment where teens either don't know how to protect themselves from STDs or pregnancy if they do have sex or they are not comfortable talking to the adults in their lives about what they have done because they fear getting in trouble.
There are a few issues that go back to this:
1. I would say 98% of parents leave it to the schools to do the dirty work. I.e. the sex talk. If it were discussed more at home in whatever direction the parents deem appropriate, it might be more effective.
2. I think the whole idea of sex is such a casual thing in our society that ANY sex education is being ignored b/c it's glamorized. Until we as a society get it together, there will continue to be high rates of teen pregnancy/STDs/tons of sexual partners.
We did a poll on this board last year, was it? There were not many of us who had only had sex with our husbands. A few people clicked 10+. It's a "no big deal" thing in our society. That has to change for ANY sex ed program to be effective.
I don't think there is always the idea that sex is no big deal. I think abstinence-only education typically fails because teenagers and young adults don't have fully developed frontal lobes and can't process the consequences of their actions. I also think raging hormones make it really difficult for some kids to say no. In that moment, I don't think kids are making any sort of truly rational decision.
While it isn't what I personally did, what is inherently wrong with having several sexual partners? I realize that the potential for STDs increases, but assuming that condoms are being used and both partners are responsible, consenting adults, I think having had 10-15 partners at the age of say, 30-35, is not necessarily crazy or inherently bad.
I don't necessarily have a problem with private, religious schools teaching abstinence-only to be in line with the beliefs of the congregations that support them. I still don't think it is very effective and think it is pretty naive, but that is just my opinion. Like Kasa said, I do have a huge problem with it in public schools.
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!
Okay, I have only ever had sex with my husband, so perhaps I just don't get it because I haven't had multiple partners.
I guess I still don't really see what harm is being done by an adult having sex responsibly with a new partner every 10 months. I understand if that doesn't fit with someone's beliefs and they therefore disagree.
What is an acceptable number of partners?
For me, it depends on the type of partner. One night stand? Not appropriate to have several. Long term relationship? I would say in 10 years, 5 long term relationships would be "acceptable."
There are diseases that condoms don't prevent. Warts, for one.
HA! I didn't think that a post that contained the names of Bristol Palin and Levi FameWhore would lead to a question of how many sexual parterners was acceptable. Y'all got deep.
Because society is so diverse, I don't think there's published safe number. People who feel that sex is something to do when conversation runs out probably have a higher number than those who view is less casually. Everyone makes their choices, and I don't get the whole judging/categorizing thing.
And Mrs/Mama - are you new to these parts? I haven't been on as much, so maybe not, or maybe you're an old soul with a new screenname?