Family um... planning

This is one of those subjects that usually causes parents to blush. Sometimes, or many times, it's skipped over all together or glossed over with some kind of Disney or Sunday School cleanliness. "The stork brought you" or "It was like magic"...

I only know of one time in history where it was "like magic"... and none of us is likely to experience that kind of thing...

One cousin keeps making the point to me that "they just didn't talk about those things. (She) probably didn't even know how she got pregnant." And this goes for married and unmarried, boys and girls alike. Another cousin remembered a conversation with Alice J. Joos late in her life, "She got pregnant as soon as they were married and then two more times. Once she figured out how the babies were coming, she stopped ___..."

They could be so sheltered they just haven't a clue, and go giggling after whatever 'feels good'.

Sometimes they'd get briefed in at the last minute, right after the wedding ceremony for instance, "Now don't worry, Susan. You'll probably see blood, it's going to hurt for a while, but try to enjoy it..." Can you imagine the terror this young bride might feel on her wedding night? Thanks for the warning, mom.

Or maybe her mother mentioned it before, but while playing around with the boy next door she didn't get hurt, didn't see blood, so she figured she was okay? Whoops! "Hey, how come I'm getting so fat?"

I'm kind of making light of it, but I hope you see where I'm coming from. These days we have Health classes in school starting around 5th grade going over the whole gamut. Some people think that's too soon or they don't want their kids to hear it from a teacher. If they cover it at home, great, if not- poor souls.

I'm not even talking about the birth control and disease lectures we get in todays media, I'm just talking about the basics. So many young women did not have that benefit even 60 years ago. And yes, people can be that "dumb".

THEN there is the feeble question of options at that point... Most of the time folks got married...

If you want to add your own comments to this, even if anonymous, go ahead. You don't even have to talk about specific family members, if you wish to leave it out.