Nine year old grandson asking what a condom is

[LynnStorm]

Ariel, realize that when you’re arguing a point of doctrine, it’s rather pointless to try to convince the Catholics reading that the Catholic doctrine is wrong. Being a “cafeteria Catholic” makes no sense; if you believe that apostolic authority extends to the Bishop of Rome and that it is the one true church in full communion with Christ, you have to accept what it teaches, even when not convenient or agreeable to you.

…

All this to say: I’m not sure why you’re trying to argue that condoms are not sinful. Catholic teaching is that they are sinful, and that all sexual acts should be a) within marriage, and b) ordered to openness toward life. End of story.

… and all of which is irrelevant to what the child asked. Right now, as my grandmother would say, Keep It Short and Sweet (KISS). “Those are for grown men to use when the need arises. When you’re older your parents will explain them further.”

 

[Rosebud77]

Yikes! What drugstore are you shopping at?

The child in the story was not asking about little children being raped, pregnant women being shot or prisoners being burnt alive.

 

[Rosebud77]

One solution is not to have condoms in full view in stores. When I was a kid, they were behind the counter. People asked the pharmacist for delicate items! :blushing:

or from the barber as “something fr the weekend…” I cannot get used to the way here they are on the shelf with the indigestion remedies… I mean… strawbery flavoured? :blush:Hey maybe that is what he saw!

 

[Rosebud77]

You say that as if all potential too life is a good thing? It’s not always. Baby’s are blessings but circumstances outside of baby can make that child’s life hell or make life for them not actually worth it in the long haul.

Please, do tell that too this woman I saw on a documentary a few years back in Africa who was living in a run down hut, in crippling poverty, with a husband who only uses her for sex and who just gave birth too her 8th child (I believe), meaning another mouth too feed when her other children are already starving from lack of food, and she had already lost numerous others to starvation and/or miscarriages.

Or what about Octomom?

There are also people who unfortunately take advantage of welfare just too have kids. There was this women I saw on the news years ago who had just gave birth too her 15th child and was collecting over $50,000 in welfare to pay for those children, whom she was only having so she could keep getting welfare checks and not have too get a job.

If a concept/teaching/rule is not in the Bible, it’s not of God, it is of man. Apostolic succession is not biblical, for the concept is never found in Scripture. Tradition is a manmade concept, not a God concept.

People of various different beliefs are on these forums. It’s not just for Catholics.

Actually I did need to explain. I’ve learned that in order to prevent any miscommunication and get my point across with people, I need too breakdown my words and be very painstakingly specific, that way, everyone understands my point

So much negativity and no mention of anything more positve… like some of the families of the posters here who had big families and thrived. And by the way, noneof the examples you use would ever have used condoms… The little word No avails much

 

[Rosebud77]

Every time I see this thread I smile so thank you!

What I really meant was that every time see the TITLE it mkes me smile, Just caught up on the thread and no more smiles… Back to the innocence of children,

 

[CB_Catholic]

I guess I’ll put in my 2 cents. My daughter is 45 years old now, so 35 years ago, when she was only 10, she insisted on her father and me sitting down at the table as she had a question. To my horror, she proceeded to explain the sex act in precise detail. Then she asked if what she heard on the school bus was true (that is where she heard it). When we told her it was, her exclamation was: WHO WOULD DO A THING LIKE THAT??? Then she asked if we did this “thing”. Now this was at the beginning of the school year and there was a planned program for sex education, in health class, the parents had been informed of it and the contents, etc., but it had not started yet, and I realized then that 10 years was probably not soon enough. Then I remembered that when I was a child of 10, my 8 year old neighbor girl informed me of how babies were made, and that was well over 50 years ago! My mother never really got around to it, and I never would have dreamed of asking her, and my sex education was obtained from peers, and there was a lot of misinformation passed on.

My point is: This was 35 years ago and kids were supposed to be more naive then, but that was not so. It is far worse today, and 9 years old is probably about right, or even earlier. They understand much more than we give them credit for. We have to take our heads out of the sand about this, esp. in this day and age.

I believe the mother should first ascertain how much the child knows, and then proceed from there. If he knows the facts, just simply explain what condoms are and why people use them, that people should only have sex to the person they are married to, and that Catholics do not try to prevent babies being born in this way. If he doesn’t know about sex, it’s time for a talk, because he’s going to get information (or misinformation) very soon from his peers. But this is the parent’s responsibility, not Grandma’s, although I do answer my granddaughters’ questions now that they have had the " talk" with their mother.

 

[truetofaith]

I’m beginning to think God made a mistake when he attached pleasure to the sex act.

When people marry, God should have stopped their desire for each other when they reached the number of children they wanted.

 

[Rosebud77]

I’m beginning to think God made a mistake when he attached pleasure to the sex act.

When people marry, God should have stopped their desire for each other when they reached the number of children they wanted.

Love it!

I can remember thinking babies were born fully dressed…Think I heard at least some of the truth from kids in my street and the school lesson focused coyly on animals… My mother got terribly embarrassed when one day I was unwell and she thought I might be starting my periods and was so releived when I told her no and that we had been taught at school. We never ever spoke of sex etc excpet when she uttered a horror ofit when referring to my errant father who had run away and started a second family with the scripture teacher at teh school he taught at …These days things are different . only ine girl in my year at shcool ( about 100 girls) “got into trouble” and she was also the only RC girl in the year, Very few in the entire school…

 

[ArielRussu]

I’m beginning to think God made a mistake when he attached pleasure to the sex act.

When people marry, God should have stopped their desire for each other when they reached the number of children they wanted.

There’s more too sex than just babies you know. It’s a form of intimacy and releases hormones that relieve stress and help with marital bonding, or at least it should for people. However, there are people with messed up brain chemistry that it probably affects differently, the same way some women bond with there newborn instantly while others can’t stand the sight of there child, nor do they ever make any emotional connection with there child. To some people sex has no pleasure while to others a child is just a person in there house that cries, makes messes and drains there finances (they are not too me! But I had a friend whose parents were like this and I’ve read blogs by women who never grew to feel a bond with there children). Not everyone’s meant to have children and not everyone is meant too marry but that should not mean the first should directly impede on the second.

 

[truetofaith]

There’s more too sex than just babies you know. It’s a form of intimacy and releases hormones that relieve stress and help with marital bonding, or at least it should for people. However, there are people with messed up brain chemistry that it probably affects differently, the same way some women bond with there newborn instantly while others can’t stand the sight of there child, nor do they ever make any emotional connection with there child. To some people sex has no pleasure while to others a child is just a person in there house that cries, makes messes and drains there finances (they are not too me! But I had a friend whose parents were like this and I’ve read blogs by women who never grew to feel a bond with there children). Not everyone’s meant to have children and not everyone is meant too marry but that should not mean the first should directly impede on the second.

Yes, sex is not just for babies…but if you are Catholic, there are restrictions! If you can’t finance any more kids, you are allowed the intimacy only when your wife can’t conceive, otherwise you commit mortal sin by using artificial birth control!