Pemalite said:
You are an Adult... Make it the end of a discussion. Children don't get to control or dictate terms to you. I am telling you that you cannot make it the end of the discussion. Have you listened to a word that I stated. As the parent if you are not teaching your child someone else will. If you are not filling in the gap in their knowledge someone else will. If you are not treating your child with respect to their curiosity and question someone else will. Just because YOU decide to end the conversation does not mean to the child its ended. They will seek understanding whether you provide it or not. The only thing I hear from you is that you tell the kids about homosexuality and that's the end but in reality its the end for you not the parent or the child. Its only the beginning as any simplistic answer will only satisfy the now not the future.
If you think that talking about two adults showing love and affection to children is suddenly going to turn into a discussion about how individuals fuck each other.. Then you are probably going about it the wrong way, kids don't need to know details like how I went and had sex with 7 different guys at a gay sauna with my partner last weekend... But telling them I love my partner as I hug him after dealing with casualties at a car accident is all that is needed. This is where I believe you have no experience in this subject. Yes, telling a child that 2 adults love each other like mom and dad can lead to a discussion about sex. Since I have had this conversation I know exactly what I am talking about. Do you believe that children do not get information about sex before their teen years. I know as a child I knew about sex at 6 years old but did not understand fully. In today's world there are girls in middle school doing knob jobs on their little boys. Hell, there was an HBO special about the whole thing. I remember hunching a young girl at 7 years old thinking I was having sex. I am telling you that as a parent, you deal with this stuff all the time or you don't and the child will get their info somewhere else and do experiments with their friends. This still comes back to what I am saying that this book doesn't do enough and it doesn't fill in the gap thus it's a half measure at a young age. This doesn't help at all but instead give a chance to have bias introduced before the child reach an age of understanding.
LGBT people are here to stay, they are in the community. Kids are going to see two men holding hands, showing affection and ask questions... Telling a child that it's because those two people love each other isn't the end of the world. The thing is for the world to accept the LGBT community as a whole, you cannot force anything but instead people need to move on from their prejudice. |
At BOLD: This is exactly what you want. You want them to see it naturally as if this is no different than walking down the street. What you do not want is it taught as something different or unique where it then can be portrayed as outside the norm.
Actually, I would say that kids do not understand the concept of love instead they understand the feeling of love. Love to a child is about how they feel not exactly what true love is and love in itself is very complex emotionally.
I can tell you when I was growing up, I did not get exposed to any homosexual group until my teens but I know for a fact if I was exposed to content like that book while I was 5 years old and went to my mom or dad for context it would not be good. Their bias on that issue is very set and even today, they are not very open minded on the subject.
Basically what I am saying is that there is a 2 edged sword to this type of material at this young age and there isn't always going to be the happy path where there is understanding and acceptance.