Pre Puberty

Brendon is going to be 8 in a couple of weeks. I have to make this post because I am just infuriated that society has stolen alot of children's innocence in this day and age. I don't let Brendon watch alot of TV, and especially not TV that has any sexual connotations, but he is still picking up on it. When I was 8, the only thing that I knew was that Barbie was a girl and Ken was a boy. When did all of this change? It is not uncommon to hear about children as young as 10 or 12 having sex! Brendon doesn't completely understand sex yet, but he certainly has some idea, and this terrifies me.
The situation that prompted me to write this entry occured a couple of days ago. I picked Brendon up from daycare, and he said that his friend had a birthday party and he got a poster of Mariah Carey. Now, most of you know that Mariah Carey prides herself in showing off her scantily clad clothing. Brendon proceeded to tell me that "her boobs were hanging out of her clothes" and that he wanted lots of posters like that in his room. I know that it is human nature for him to want to look at women, but I didn't know this was going to happen soooo early. I think that I am going to try and wait at least one more year before I have the "sex" talk with him. Unfortuantley, it is not just the "birds and the bees" anymore. Education on sex is key. I was pregnant far too young, but this is not all that kids these days have to worry about. Media perpetuates SEX, SEX, SEX, and there is really no way to protect children from it, even if you don't expose them to television or the internet. I really want to wait until Brendon becomes a teenager to teach him about safe sex, and STD's, but I am worried that waiting until then could be too late, seeing that many 12 year olds are sexually active.
Here are some of the stats that I read on the govt's page about teenagers having sex:

• Compared to older adults, adolescents (10-19 year olds), are at higher risk for aquiring STD's for a number of reasons, including limited access to preventative and regular health care and physiologically increased susceptability to infection.
• Approximately one in four sexually active teens contracts and STD every year
• An estimated half of all new HIV infections occur in people under the age of 25. Most young people are infected through sex.
• More than a quarter of teens aged 15-17 report feeling pressure to have sex.

I think that this is enough to scare any parent. Most of my friends are still worrying about changing diapers and first steps, and these are issues that they won't have to face for a long time. I didn't think it was something that I was going to have to deal with for a long time! I am going to do my best to wait until Brendon is 10, but everyday he is learning more and more from his schoolmates, and that is not where I want him to get his information.