This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with StayTeen.org and Latina Bloggers Connect. All opinions are my own.
Did you know that May is national Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month? This month is an opportunity to raise awareness about teen pregnancy and talk to teens about sex to give them the education they need to make better decisions. While there has been a historic decline in the number of teen pregnancies, nearly 3 in 10 girls will still become pregnant by age 20 (source TheNationalCampaign.org).
Looking back I don’t remember having a conversation with my parents about love, sex and relationships when I was a teenager. In fact, it was quite the opposite in our home, the word ‘sex’ was never mentioned at the dinner table. Most of my exposure about sex was provided by the school sex education sessions, movies or my peers. For that reason, everything I understood and knew about sex was all over the place which could be very confusing for a teen.
Now that I am a parent of two daughters, I want to make sure that my girls feel comfortable to talk about such matters with my husband or me. When the day comes, I want to teach my girls about healthy life skills, development, and communication that helps to prepare them for adulthood and equips them with the information needed to make responsible decisions and avoid teen pregnancy.
As parents, we are the most influential people in our child’s life when it comes to making decisions to have sex. In fact, over three-fourths of all teens-and 94% of Latino teens- feel it would be much easier to postpone sexual activity and avoid pregnancy if they were able to have more open honest conversations about these topics with their parents. However, it can be an uncomfortable topic to engage with your teens so the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is providing bilingual resources to help you start the conversation with your teens.
A simple way to start the conversation is to have you and your teenager visit StayTeen.org to take the National Day Quiz, which challenges teens to think carefully about what they might do “in the moment.” It’s a great way to start talking sex with your teen today.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of StayTeen.org and Latina Bloggers Connect. However all opinions expressed are my own.