"I wasn't suggesting that there's anything 'wrong' (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) with the teachers, Lizzie - just that kids are getting sex rammed down their throats (another pun intended) by schools, and that in itself lends an element of 'acceptibility' or 'decency' to situations which were completely unacceptable forty or fifty years ago."

Oh yes, I realised that completely, Backwoodsman, I just went off at a tangent, as ever. :0)

"Other people finding the notion of children drawing gentle pictures of mummies and daddies cuddling in bed disturbing, says more to me about their own feelings about sex being a 'taboo' matter, than anything. Of course, because I was actually there, I don't have to imagine how dreadful it might have been like. I know they were lovely lessons nd not at all weird or wrong, and the teaching of the subject matter was done with warmth, gentleness and sensitivity."

I'm glad you felt that way, Rosie. It's just that as an older person, whose teachers would never ever have even entertained that idea, let alone our parents, I still find it doesn't fit into my mind.
Sex isn't taboo in my book, unless you're a child. By all means talk openly about it, in the warmth and safety of the home, but to introduce it into schools at an earlier and earlier age, for more and more years, disturbs me.

We all just got on with it. We had a childhood, some had happy ones, some didn't, as is still the case today, but sure as heck, our minds weren't filled with sex when we were at primary school, we were far too busy reading Janet and John books, and in those days, John wasn't shagging Janet behind the bike shed, with his correctly applied condom on...

Ho hum....

"Having children is a privilege and not a right.
It is a privilege much abused."

Absolutely, John. And I get incensed at parents who scream at their kids and who obviously don't give a tinker's cuss for them and see them as an 'intrusion' into their lifestyle, expecting everyone else to bring them up, so they can carry on as they always have done. There are far too many parents like that today.

Bringing a child into the world is a huge responsibility and one we have a choice over nowadays. I'll always remember that midwife saying to us, on our 'tour' of the maternity unit, just prior to our babies being born..."Never forget ladies, you are giving birth to an adult" :0) Well, you had to see the funny side there, the "WHAAAAAAT! A 7lb er will do me just fine thank you, Mrs!"...but she was right, babies are only babies for such a short time, likewise childhood rushes past, at an ever increasing rate these days, sadly..and to miss oodles of those days is the saddest thing.

We struggled for years because I chose to stay home with my kids. I bought clothes from Oxfam for them many a time, never minded, the clothes were great, and cheap..and a good wash was all they ever needed..We didn't have fancy this and that, or posh holidays..but I had my kids around me and that's what mattered.

Motherhood is far more important than a career..well, it's a career in itself, but it's one that has been so terribly devalued, and the ones to have suffered have been the children.

Nowadays, many have no choice *but* to return to work, in order to pay the ludicrous bills, let alone anything else. But all the things that people are told 'matter' and that you 'must have' don't matter at all. Your kids matter, and they're just as happy on a camping holiday or in a caravan, as they'd be in the poshest hotel. At least, with the tent holiday, they get to have you around far more during the rest of the year...during their childhood.

Woops! Wasn't going to say anymore.. Shhhhhhh! :0)