By Karabo Moyo
I’m convinced that if our parents were more open and communicated with us as children about the consequences of having sex at a young age, we wouldn’t be having so many teen moms.
Perhaps these conversations would have prevented and made us know what is right from wrong. More importantly, we wouldn’t be faced with the effects and serious consequences of the deadly HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Did my own research and spoke to two teen moms: One of them says, “If I had been told by my parents about the consequences of having sex, maybe, I wouldn’t have had a child – but I’m all so grateful to my loving and caring parents who never turned their backs on me, they supported me and took care of my son while I was at school”.
Another teen mom says: “I got pregnant when I was only 16 years and at first, I hated myself because I was alone, my friends turned their backs on me, and now I know and believe the expression that says ‘when days are dark, friends are few’, she says.
Parents always blame children when things go wrong and never share the responsibility of not communicating and being open about sex and young people.
Spoke to the mother of the teen mom to get her side of things: “The reason why I didn’t talk to my daughter about not having sex was because I never anticipated and thought my daughter was in a relationship, let alone having sex. I thought she was too young and raising the subject who encourage her to try it. Now I know better, I was wrong, knowledge is power”, she says.
My suggestion:
“All parents should have the dreaded topic of sex and young people at home, before children start experimenting on their own, and throw away all their dreams. Having said that, I must say I am proud of those teen moms who haven’t given up on their dreams and are still at school to see their dreams come true.”
