Sunday, March 26, 2006
Interesting Weekend
On Friday night, Dad made us his famous and delicious spaghetti dinner. Phil joined us later in the evening, and we ended up playing poker (with monopoly money) until about 1 am. We had a great time and the time just flew by. Pretty much everyone except Owen played, with Zoe and Dorothy taking turns for their "team".
On Saturday, we went out for Melanie's birthday dinner at a pub in the market. It was fun although the food was not too great. But it was nice to see so many people, including Dad, Phil, Dan, Jennifer, Tim, Melanie, Mom, Kim and Mark. I wasn't up to staying out late due to the night before, so we went home around 9 pm.
Today I was teaching JR OWL again with Guy. Last week we learned about contraception methods... this week we were talking about unplanned pregnancy options. We basically asked the group "What would you do if your best friend (age 14) told you that she thought she was pregnant?" This led to a really long discussion. We all agreed that at that age and for the purposes of our discussion that it would not be a good option for a 14 year old teen to become a parent, so we focused on discussing what is involved in adoption and abortion.
First we talked about the historical secrecy surrounding adoption in our society - and how it was morally wrong in the past to have sex and get pregnant and that being an unwed mother was a huge stigma. Also about how being infertile was also something that was considered shameful. We talked about how the law has recently changed (in Canada) allowing birth mothers to know who is going to raise their children and allowing for more open adoptions to take place.
When we talked about abortion we also talked about historical implications and how we have learned in the past that when you make an activity illegal it just goes underground. Many of the kids had strong views against abortion, (especially the boys) so we educated them about exactly what is involved in an abortion so that they could be more aware of what they were saying and encourage them to respectfully share their opinions without attacking others who feel differently. Overall the discussion was very good and informative.
Finally we talked abut father's rights and how things have changed for men as parents both culturally and legally in recent years. As the roles of men and women change, so should the laws which surround these issues.
On Saturday, we went out for Melanie's birthday dinner at a pub in the market. It was fun although the food was not too great. But it was nice to see so many people, including Dad, Phil, Dan, Jennifer, Tim, Melanie, Mom, Kim and Mark. I wasn't up to staying out late due to the night before, so we went home around 9 pm.
Today I was teaching JR OWL again with Guy. Last week we learned about contraception methods... this week we were talking about unplanned pregnancy options. We basically asked the group "What would you do if your best friend (age 14) told you that she thought she was pregnant?" This led to a really long discussion. We all agreed that at that age and for the purposes of our discussion that it would not be a good option for a 14 year old teen to become a parent, so we focused on discussing what is involved in adoption and abortion.
First we talked about the historical secrecy surrounding adoption in our society - and how it was morally wrong in the past to have sex and get pregnant and that being an unwed mother was a huge stigma. Also about how being infertile was also something that was considered shameful. We talked about how the law has recently changed (in Canada) allowing birth mothers to know who is going to raise their children and allowing for more open adoptions to take place.
When we talked about abortion we also talked about historical implications and how we have learned in the past that when you make an activity illegal it just goes underground. Many of the kids had strong views against abortion, (especially the boys) so we educated them about exactly what is involved in an abortion so that they could be more aware of what they were saying and encourage them to respectfully share their opinions without attacking others who feel differently. Overall the discussion was very good and informative.
Finally we talked abut father's rights and how things have changed for men as parents both culturally and legally in recent years. As the roles of men and women change, so should the laws which surround these issues.
