And yet I watched today.
Did you?
What did you think? (i know you will be respectful with your comments).
Personally, I have an ache in my stomach. How far our society has strayed from God’s plan.
**Some of emailed/commented for a re-cap if they were unable to watch the show. Go HERE for an outline of what the show was about. It pretty much goes through what was discussed on the show.**
no. 17 cherry tree lane 
ohh dangit I missed it! Can’t watch TV while Cam’s doin homework. this was the one about talking to your kids about sex no?
I soooooo agree! People worship her, and I think she kind of worships herself. It is scary to see who and what people put their trust and faith into.
Would you mind a little recap? I don’t watch her, and have no clue what’s going on, but I’m curious…
Thanks for the link. Just reinforces why I don’t watch her. I definitely think that open communication is important, but this takes it too far in my opinion.
I can’t speak to the show because I didn’t watch it, but I do think it is important for parents to be the main source of a childs sexual education and that each parent has to decided for themselves how explicit to be at what stage in their child’s development – what bothered you about the show, just curious??
in the interest of full disclosure, i will say that i am not married and not a mother, so i will just speak from my experience as i grew up. i did watch oprah today, i by no means “worship” her, in fact, most of the time I think she is a bit obnoxious. but, i really do think that the topic of speaking with your kids about sex is an important one.
i grew up in a christian home and aside from “don’t have sex until your married because God says so” i really did not get other information about sex or sexuality. and looking back, i realize that i had questions and thoughts about sex at a really young age (like 10 and as an adult and hopefully future mother, that freaks me out). i do believe that teaching abstinence and God’s plan for your child’s body is the way to go. however, i also believe that if a child asks questions and they do not get the proper answers/information from their parent(s) then they will find that information somewhere else and it will likely be false. further more, at a certain age (and that age is MUCH younger that we think and would like) kids do discuss these things and are embarrassed to ask their parents, so if parents are not willing to open up first and give their child a forum in-which they can talk about everything regarding the body that God gave them, then they will act based in information that 14 year old “i think that oral sex is no big deal” girl/boy gives them in the school bathroom (NOT OK!). looking back, i feel like i made decisions as a young lady that were not smart and that later effected the relationships that i had as a young adult. i thank God that i never made any irreversible mistakes and i truly believe that had i been given the information and had my mother actually had several REAL conversations with me as i grew up about all of it, i think that i would have not made most of those choices, at least certainly not in the way that i did.
all of that being said, i will NOT taking a page out of the oprah show today and go to the “pleasure chest” and buying a vibrator for my future child, that is absurd. but i really think that the idea of giving children information and being the one that educates your child, starting at an early age is so vital to their future decisions and i certainly hope and pray that when the time comes for me the good Lord will give me the wisdom and strength to deal with “the talk” in the best way possible.
thanks for the post rachel — i have never written a lengthy comment, leave it to you to get it out of me :)!
Um, buying a vibrator for my daughter? I will definitely have to watch this Oprah later tonight – I’ll be back with a more detailed comment.
Leave it to you Rachel to spark some conversation…
As the mother of two beautiful little girls I feel like I am not ready to have this discussion with my daughters. I do know that I will probably never know just what to say when the time comes but I do know that my talk with them WILL NOT include the gift of a vibrator. I can only say that it is times like this that I wonder what we as a society are coming to. My desire to raise all my children in a way that is delightful to the Lord doesn’t seem to fit into the ideas of “good parenting” in our society.
My sweetie is 11, and we’ve been having open conversations about sex/reproduction/love/respecting her body since she was very little – maybe 4 or 5?
Open conversation is very important to me since I was given a brief discussion with lots of technical terms and didn’t get why my parents were so weirded out. That turned into a big fight between my parents because my dad had a kid before he met my mom… sigh. So it wasn’t a good topic for honest discussion.
In my house? It’s good. We purchased really good, easy to follow books for our daughter, allowed her to peruse them without our intervention, and then gave her some time to absorb the info. About 3 days later, the questions started coming and the lines of communication are still open! In fact, she’s interested in kissing these days – anticipating the first one! When she brought it up, we talked about it. Self-respect, discretion, saying no, etc. If we’re like this now, I’m hoping that we’ll always be closer than the average mom/daughter.
I have been feeling convicted lately about supporting her and her show. (By no means do I imply that anyone else should follow suit, I am just speaking of what has been on my heart lately.) I just get a sick feeling in my gut that tells me to turn the channel or to do something more productive. Due to today’s episode I wont be tuning in anymore. I just cant take it. I cant take her pushing her agenda down my throat anymore. So I am choosing to turn her off. … PS, SHE CRAZY!
Short and sweet…I use to watch all the time…now I do every once in a while. I wish she would come back to her roots. I just pray for her and hope that God will touch her heart…and open her eyes to him and use her for his purposes. She could be awesome.
Here’s my 2 cents:
Love her or loathe her, Oprah really knows how to get women talking – I’ll give her that!
I thought the first part of the show was very informative and very honest. I went to Christian schools k-12, and I vividly remenber learning about sex when I was 8 from another student at school. Thankfully her mom was a nurse so the description was accurate. I have 2 girls, so I know the feeling of wanting to bury my head in the sand and pretend we never have to talk about sex. But I do not want another student (or that student’s parents) to be the one to tell them – that needs to be ME. I agree completely that the discussions need to be normalized as possible, so that our children (specifically our girls) can feel comfortable talking to us moms about their bodies and what they are feeling/hearing/experiencing.
That being said…I will not be discussing pleasure with my girls! I didn’t see it as Oprah proposing that subject – seems to me she and Gayle were really taken aback by the doctor’s suggestion. To me, that “pleasure” experience is incredibly personal – not one I’m sure I could even discuss with my girls, nor would I necessarily want to hear about it from them. They’ll have to figure out the “pleasure principle” on their own…
What was most striking to me? How can we give our young girls more self confidence and self esteem so that they won’t be giving junior high boys oral sex in the bathroom between classes? That whole discussion with the junior high girls BROKE MY HEART. I know when the time comes to discuss sex with my girls, at the top of my list will be instilling in them just how wonderful and amazing they are – physically, personally, and spiritually – and that if a boy doesn’t see that (i.e. he’s insisting on oral sex in the bathroom) – you need to tell him to take a hike!
Wow. I didn’t watch the show, but read the recap online. I am seriously dumbfounded at what this doctor was saying. As a mother of an almost 11 year old daughter I cannot believe that the doctor actually suggested pulling out a diagram & pointing out pleasure areas!! Why would a 10 year old need to know about orgasms! No freaking way!!!
First let me say that I do believe that it’s important to have open conversations with your kids. I want both of my kids to feel comfortable coming to me with questions (not asking their friends) – I certainly didn’t feel comfortable with my parents growing up.
On the flip side, I do feel like you can give your child TOO MUCH information – which would cause them experiment at a younger age. I also believe that too much / too early of sexual type conversations can make some kids more focused on sex and more curious as opposed to the kids who know nothing about it.
I can go on and on – but yes it does make me feel sick & I am concerned with the many Oprah followers who do everything she says – trying this out with their daughters.
I didn’t watch the show, but had some friends give me the run down on it. Holy guacamole. I FREAKED out thinking that someday I would, gasp, have to tell Serena how she came to be. But, as she has gotten older it doesn’t seem so overwhelming or awful. She asks some questions, not many yet, but I answer them. When I was pregnant with Chloe we talked about where babies come out. She knows a small amount about periods, and puberty. I always answer what she asks. That I totally feel is important. But getting her a vibrator is WAAAAAY overboard. Should you also buy porno mags for teenage boys?? That, to me, seems to run along the same line of logic as “I want my kids to try alcohol at my house, so I know they’ll be safe, after all, teenagers will do what teenagers will do!” Though sexuality will be part of her as she grows, it’s not all she is about, and I refuse to make it the sole focus of her teenage years. Our culture puts SOOO much focus on sexuality, why do I need to add to it? I will teach her all about sex, and sexuality and how God’s plan is best, but I will also teach her that she is not defined by her sexuality. SHe is defined by her character and her choices in every decision in life, in the bedroom and out.