I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this.
Before I begin, I just want to say that based on the feedbacks gathered from so many parenting related articles I shared on my FB page so far, I would say a lot of my readers are very open to the idea of teaching and educating their children about their body parts, the correct naming and what to do to protect themselves and their privacy. On matters related to sex education, there are mixed responses from my readers but I realised I have not asked my readers whether they talked to their kiddos about birth control topics before.
So for this article, I would really want to find out what are your thoughts on this. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:
"An eight-year-old boy is being tested for sexually transmitted diseases after finding a used condom on his school's playground and putting it in his mouth. The young boy, whose mother has asked that he isn't named, is being tested for herpes, hepatitis C, chlamydia and other viruses and infections.
He found the used condom on his school grounds and thought it was a balloon so tried to blow it up, his mum said. She said: "When the teacher took the 'balloon' out of his mouth, it was a used condom." Emails between school officials and the boy's mum show the condom was thrown away by a teacher and was not tested, American news KMGH-TV reported.
The boy, who attends Bennett Elementary School in Colorado, could now face tests for STDs for years to come, his mum said.
She said she wants the school district to pay for the tests and the school's insurance carrier has denied her claim. But health officials said there is little risk of the boy contracting a disease from the condom, since it may have been outside the school for a long period of time. The school has no surveillance cameras and no fences and it remains unknown who discarded the condom."
The boy is 8 years old. He found something odd at the playground and like any curious child, decided to find out more. Now my questions to parents reading this are:
- First question: Does your child know what to do if he/she stumbles upon things he/she has not seen / heard of before? Do you teach him/her to run straight to the teacher or to you (or person-in-charge) to inform first? Or he/she is allowed to bring over the object(s) he/she found to show and ask someone else?
- Second question: Does your child know what is a condom? Do you teach them what it is and what to do if he/she ever see one regardless whichever location / condition they found it?
To be honest, I am concerned after reading this article as even though our kiddos have been taught not to simply touch anything they found wherever they are (and to always let mummy know first - so far so good), curiosity is a very tempting thing. It doesn't help if the child prods further and like the boy in this article, thought it was a balloon and tried to blow it up.
- Third question: Do you plan to talk about this incident with your child now that you have read this article? If yes, how? If no, why?
Do share your thoughts on this!
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