My son will turn 16 at the end of the year and has been dating a girl of the same age. During the pandemic, physical contact between them is minimal, but I recently caught my son sneaking a blanket into the treehouse in our backyard. I busted him on it, but didn’t make a big deal of it.
We had already decided to watch the movie “Unplanned” together, and I wanted him to see it before seeing his girlfriend again. We watched 40 minutes before he asked if we could stop. At that point in the film it showed a girl his own age dealing with a botched abortion. I stopped the movie and turned to him saying “It is your job as a man to make sure you never put your girl in the position to have to make this choice. This destroys girls. The pill is not 100% safe and condoms aren’t 100% safe. The only thing 100% safe is not having sex.” He nodded his head and I could tell that the point had been driven home.
My husband and I are doing our best to raise our two boys into men who will take responsibility for their actions, and recognize bad options before they make those choices. We can only instill in them the lessons. The rest will ultimately be up to them.
Tessa
A Lesson for My Teenage Son
