Parent.org
Wanting more for New Zealand's parents
In twenty short years successive governments have turned a functioning parenting environment into one where failing families have millions of dollars thrown at them every year, and every year more families fail. During the same period we have turned the business environment from failure focused to success focused.
If you are concerned that childhood is being separated from parenting, you should be. If you can imagine a society where parenting is recognised to be the most important role a person can take on, then you can also imagine a society which is heading towards prosperity and social harmony, a society where prisons are closed down, schools are vibrant community hubs and domestic violence is all but gone. To make it happen we have to do more than imagine though....
come on in and see
Hot Topic
The Auckland District Health Board and the morning after pill...our take
We all want what is best for our children, and for their very consideration of this matter Parent.org applauds the ADHB for engaging with the issue.
However, common sense suggests that this approach of making the morning after pill freely available to adolescent girls may have the following consequences.
As a parenting group our primary concern is this:
- Promote teen promiscuity.
- Decrease teen awareness and interest in contraception options and sexual health.
- Reduce the use of condoms and thus.
- Increase the incidence of STD's, including HIV/AIDs, amongst teens.
- Increase teen pregnancy rates. Once a culture develops that makes unprotected sex okay teens may become more inclined to engage but not get around to taking the pill.
The teen years are undoubtedly the most difficult time in the development of a relationship between teens and their parents. This initiative drives a wedge in that already fragile teen/parent relationship. It would be a wiser social investment to put resources into helping parents understand and help their children through the teen years - the payback will be a getter number of young adults who are more capable of interacting in the adult world, take on and hold good jobs, engage with their community in a meaningful way, and establish durable personal relationships of their own.
If more teens had great relationships with their parents, their sexual knowledge is likely to be stronger and they are likely to have stronger values to make better decisions about sexual relationships.
So, while Parent.org acknowledges that there are families in our society where the level of antipathy, distrust and violence is such that teens need such an avenue to seek help in an emergency, the one size fits all approach being considered by the ADHB might be likened to using a nuclear bomb to crack a walnut.... there will be unwanted fallout.
Our advise to the Board - consider all the outcomes of this initiative - not just the ones being sought. We are confident you can find a better solution to the teen pregnancy problem.
Our advice to concerned parents. Here is the ADHB link, email them with your concerns.