Talk to Your Kids About Abortion or My Kids Might

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When my youngest was in elementary school, she repeated a conversation she had heard at home. The conversation was about our family boycotting a doll company that had decided to partner up with Planned Parenthood. Susie told her girlfriends at recess that she wasn’t allowed to play with those particular dolls because “they kill babies.” That’s how she had understood it. Children don’t get bogged down in the ethics of material or formal cooperation. When we strip away all the euphemisms, she was essentially right. There was no clean way to deliver that.
 
I’m wholeheartedly against abortion. I think this is a little much, though. Dolls don’t kill babies. I wouldn’t want my young child hearing something like that from another young child at school.
 
I’m wholeheartedly against abortion. I think this is a little much, though. Dolls don’t kill babies. I wouldn’t want my young child hearing something like that from another young child at school.
“Dolls kill babies” was how the daughter interpreted the conversation, not what the parents told her.

My oldest is six and we’ve had to have conversations about divorce, death, child predators, pornography, and other things. I wish I didn’t have to. I’m not graphic about it and I do my best to keep it age appropriate. But the reality is I’d rather he be able to name something and know it’s wrong or dangerous, rather than be led on to think something is fine that isn’t.

We haven’t discussed abortion yet, but I bet that’s not far off. We have had to have hard conversations about things family members, friends, or classmates have done or said. That’s just life.

On my first day of kindergarten, I came home and asked my mom what the n-word meant. This was the early 90s in the deep South.
 
As an elementary school teacher, I agree with this writer. I never heard the word “abortion” until I was in the 8th grade. Prior to that, I had only heard adults use the euphemism “not keeping the baby”, which my child-mind translated as giving the baby up for adoption. I was told by another student who chose the topic for a report. But that was back in the day and I can assure you that kids are talking about abortion much younger. If you don’t tell your kids about it, other kids will, and you can only hope those kids are being raised prolife! I currently have a student who came to school proudly telling about her sister’s abortion and the way she talks, it’s clear that she doesn’t understand that the baby was killed. She thinks the baby was postponed until her sister is more responsible.
 
I’m not entirely convinced about the effectiveness of inculculating your preferred moral systems onto children while they’re young.

At the very least, I grew up in a strongly Catholic family and all that entailed, but I still spend my adulthood arguing for the importance of legal and easily available abortion. So y’know, plans make fools of us all and all that.
 
I’m not entirely convinced about the effectiveness of inculculating your preferred moral systems onto children while they’re young.

At the very least, I grew up in a strongly Catholic family and all that entailed, but I still spend my adulthood arguing for the importance of legal and easily available abortion. So y’know, plans make fools of us all and all that.
That’s true, people are free to make whatever ridiculous decisions they want to as adults, and they do.

But just like I teach my kids to eat their veggies and look both ways before they cross the street, I teach them right from wrong.
 
As much as I agree with the writer that it is important for families to teach their children right from wrong…I also think there is a need to teach kids manners. My parents taught me it was not good to be overweight, but they also taught me not to tell a fat person that.

Sure kids are going to repeat things, but parents still need to teach kids a few Dale Carnegie skills

I remember babysitting and taking a 5 year old boy to the parc. A lady was sitting at a pinic table and she light up a cigarette. This little boy marched right up to her and said in a very forcefull tone ‘Don’t you ever smoke’. I pulled him away, gave him a talk and made him go back and apologize.

IOW it doesn’t stop at teaching a kid right from wrong, included in the lesson is ‘judge not let’s ye be judged’

Angie
 
As much as I agree with the writer that it is important for families to teach their children right from wrong…I also think there is a need to teach kids manners. My parents taught me it was not good to be overweight, but they also taught me not to tell a fat person that.

Sure kids are going to repeat things, but parents still need to teach kids a few Dale Carnegie skills

I remember babysitting and taking a 5 year old boy to the parc. A lady was sitting at a pinic table and she light up a cigarette. This little boy marched right up to her and said in a very forcefull tone ‘Don’t you ever smoke’. I pulled him away, gave him a talk and made him go back and apologize.

IOW it doesn’t stop at teaching a kid right from wrong, included in the lesson is ‘judge not let’s ye be judged’

Angie
In this case, it doesn’t sound like the kid was “judging”. She had been told that they were boycotting the dolls because the company supported abortion. She told her friends that was why she wasn’t allowed to play with the dolls.
 
Are there actually dolls that are associated with PP? I wasn’t aware of it.

I’m not sure I agree with the premise. I’ve tried with my kids to let them know about how the baby develops. My older two came to sonograms for their siblings, they would talk to baby before birth etc. I wouldn’t have told them in first grade about abortion. It’s so terrible and they don’t need to know yet.

It’s been hard as a mom for me to balance how much information my kids get. My mom never spoke to me about anything like that. I remember her being pregnant with my sister, but never getting to speak to the baby. I never got the talk. I had to look up things in the encyclopedia. I was horrified when a friend told me about sex, and I was convinced it couldn’t possibly be true.

With my kids I’ve tried to be open with them regarding their questions etc. but on my kids time line, not this woman’s children’s time line.
 
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