Talking about Sex and Sexuality to Your Adolescent 1
- Introduction
- Preparing for Puberty
- Continuing the Discussion
- Why It's Hard for Teens to Resist Sex
- Reasons for Teens to Save Sex for Marriage
- Factors that Can Lead to Teens Having Sex
- Reducing the Risks that Can Lead to Teens Having Sex
- The Role of Identity in Preventing Teen Sex
- Spotting Unhealthy Relationships
- Pointers for Parents on Starting the Dialogue
Spotting Unhealthy Relationships
Talk to your adolescent about unhealthy relationships, and have the courage to speak honestly if you see one developing. Be cautious of:
- Relationships that ride a roller coaster of emotions—being madly in love one day, fighting like cats and dogs the next, crying and making up over and over—distract and drain a couple's time and energy and wear out everyone else for miles around. They also turn into difficult marriages.
- Relationships in which one person is intensely needy for the other, and thus clingy and smothering, are parasitic and draining.
- Relationships that have ongoing verbal disrespect in one or both directions are doomed.
- Relationships in which physical abuse occurs must be terminated immediately.
An important note: Unhealthy relationships carry a significant risk for sexual involvement.
1 Adapted from the booklet, Talking About Sex and Sexuality to Your Adolescent (Copyright © 2000 Focus on Your Family), itself an excerpt from The Complete Book of Baby & Child Care (Copyright © 1997 Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved). Accessed on-line January 30, 2007 at http://www.focusonyourchild.com/develop/art1/A0000982.html.