‘It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.’
~Barbara Kingsolver
Photographs are what memories are made of. There’s nothing that I love more than looking back and seeing how my children have grown over the years, from their first steps, holidays or even their first Christmas plays. I take my camera everywhere and whenever the occasion requires I’m always there ready to take pics to preserve that memory.
But lately, I can’t help but think that political correctness has gone too far concerning taking pictures of your own children in public places. If you have kids you would understand, that other peoples paranoia is the last thing in your mind when it comes to family days out. But lately this has been festering in my mind, whenever David and I take the kids out in the park, pool or activity centres, I am more reluctant in getting my camera out.
When we took Sam out last weekend to a soft play centre, I really thought about it for at least 20 minutes, whether should I or shouldn’t I take photos of him while other children were around. It saddens me that I was made to feel that what I was doing is unlawful or even perverse.
An article I was reading a few weeks ago, involved a father of three innocently taking photos of his children on an inflatable slide when he was confronted by the person running the slide and he was demanded to stop and even one person apparently accused him of putting these photos on the internet. Obviously the father was enraged and couldn’t understand why someone could even think that he is using his camera for any other reason than taking photos of his sons.
There was also a story a few years back when respected newsreader Julia Somerville was reported to the police by Boots who developed the photographs, over allegedly indecent and obscene pictures of her seven year old child naked in the bath. Julia and her husband were both arrested and questioned by Scotland Yard. Obviously the parents were horrified and distressed and insisted that the photos were just for the family album. Both was later released with no charge.
I find the above story distressing as I would expect that many parents have been in a situation where they have taken photos of their children in the bath and have never thought anything about it, and why should you?
It is also upsetting that some schools prohibit parents to take film or photos of their own children’s plays and sports days. In my opinion, these are our children and we have an absolute right to document their achievements without being penalized for it. But sadly, with so many children being abused and child pornography being rife on the net, I can’t blame parents for being extra vigilant, but surely they should see the difference between a parent taking innocent photos for the family album and a paedophile taking advantage for their own sick intentions, then again sadly these days we live in a world where you never know who you can trust.
It has caused so much controversy in the last few days when the FPA (Family Planning Association) published a sex education pamphlet. The comic style information book is aimed for children of 6-7 year old and teaches them about the concepts of growth. It uses pictures and stories to help children identify their sexual organs and apparently help them to identify the physical changes they go through as they grow up.
The FPA is promoting to start sex education early on British children, a comic called “Let’s grow with Nisha and Joe” will be shown to pupils unless parents opt out. Some parents have condemned the idea and stated that this kind of information is too much for a 6 or 7 year old to handle.
The UK has the highest teenage birth rates in Western Europe – twice as high as in Germany, three times as high as in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands. So is this the governments plan to for a ‘quick fix’? Catch them young as they say?
There are often arguments on the root causes, and also suggestions on how to prevent our ever rising teen pregnancies, from promoting family values and encouraging openness about sex and relationships. So would this pamphlet help ‘cure’ our problem or is this just another example of our ever growing ‘nanny culture’ and how our government creates social engineering to lower the ever growing statistics?
In my opinion sex does not need to be taught in our schools, sex becomes a natural interest in children as they grow up, and it is up to us parents to educate them and to give them simple honest answers. Not only that, but subjects like periods, contraception and relationships should be slowly introduced as a form of gradual communication between parents and their children and these should be based on a need to know basis, if the situation occurs or a question was raised then you will know that it is the right time to discuss such matters with them. My children are comfortable in approaching me with anything that regards to sex, whether it would be the names for their body parts or other peoples sexuality. I have never found it uncomfortable or improper. In a way, I’m pleased to know that they can confide in me.
I remember one situation when my daughter was 5 years old and she asked me where babies came from. She listened intently as I explained the biologies of human creation. I didn’t sugar coat it with storks or birds and the bees, she wanted to know the facts not some fairytale story about finding babies in cabbage patches, and as a parent it is my role to educate her. There was also a time when she asked me what is the proper name for ‘private parts’, I think it’s important to tell them the correct terminology rather than giving them pet names such as ‘peepee’ or ‘thingy’. I think some parents feel uncomfortable with anything that’s got to do with sex, and would rather avoid the subject in fear of their own embarrassment.
Teaching them morals, self respect and how to take responsibility for their actions are also more important than straight forward sex talks, it does not matter about how much they know about sex, if they didn’t know how to integrate the above when starting a sexual relationship then all this knowledge is just a weapon towards promiscuity. The same as naivety can lead to more teenage pregnancies.
Having not read the comic myself, I cannot judge the amount of details that they contain, but from listening and reading to what other parents say, I can only assume that it’s an over load of information about sex for children under 7. Is it right to burden our children with this much detail. How do you embed these in young immature minds? Society has forced our kids to grow up too quickly and were hanging by a thread to preserve what innocence they have left.
The media bombards us with ‘sex’ everyday, from homosexuality, teen pregnancy, abortion, sexual abuse which usually comes in the form of many popular soap operas. It worries me that these programs are shown before the watershed, obviously watched by many children including my son and daughter. They are more aware of the word ‘gay’, ‘lesbian’ and ‘sex’, compared to when I was at their age. Judging by this over exposure, do we really need to add to it by teaching our 6 year olds sex education? Surely there’s a point where we have to draw a line and let our children be children.
