Babies with babies

Christmas 2005. The only babies my babies need for a loooooooooooooong time.

Hello everyone. Happy Monday. Did you have a good weekend?

I want to start things off by thanking everyone who commented on Grace’s guest post or sent us private emails with your thoughts. She read each and every one and learned a great deal in the process.

The project was pretty open, in terms of what she could do, so she printed out her post and all the comments, as well as discussions we started on Facebook and Twitter, and turned them in to her teachers, along with the rest of her notes and research. Her teachers were delighted with what she had done and ended up reading parts of Grace’s post out loud to the class. And for those of us who came of age before the 21st century, would you have ever imagined using social media to help you with a research project?

One of my girlfriends texted me when she first read the post and admitted that she was a little freaked out that this project was assigned, but I told her that it’s standard curriculum for 8th graders in Virginia. And honestly? It’s necessary. The fact is, every year at the middle school, there is at least one pregnant teenager walking the halls. It’s sad and it’s terrible and it’s heart-breaking. But it’s stark evidence that middle schoolers need to learn some hard truths — preferably in a theoretical way and not in reality.

It would be even better if those children — and they are still children — were learning these things at home, from their parents and other trusted adults. My girls know they can talk to Pete and me. One of their grandmothers and one of their aunts both teach Family Life Education in their respective schools, so my girls know they can go to either of them if they  don’t feel comfortable talking to us. And their pediatrician has told both of the girls that they can always ask her questions too. One would hope that all children would have so many adults available to them for advice and information, but sadly, that’s not always the case.

But I’m lucky. My girls do still talk to their parents and they do still ask us questions. A lot of those conversations seem to happen in the car when I’m trying to navigate traffic, but at least those conversations are happening. So whenever those conversations come up, we just roll with it and use them as an opportunity to educate our children. Because that’s what we parents do, right?

So I want to just THANK YOU all for giving Grace your time and for answering her lengthy list of questions. We here in Jenworld appreciated it, we truly do.

And that’s what I have for y’all today. I need to keep things short because I’m in the throes of packing. (P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney…) Good luck with navigating through your Monday, wherever you are. I’ll see you all tomorrow.