PG-Parental Guidance or Pregnancy?

This weekend was certainly an eye-opener for me regarding teen activities when parents aren’t around.  I work with youth all of the time, I am the parent of 6 children-three of which are adults and three are under the age of 18.  I took my younger three children, plus 3 ten year old girls to the movies with my husband to celebrate the 10th birthday of my youngest child.  I took them to a family movie-a PG movie.  It should have been safe right?  Wrong!

The movie was fine…don’t get me wrong here…the problem was a couple of audience members.  We were seated in the back of the small theater because of the size of our group…there were 8 of us.  We were spread out because the teens didnt want to sit with mom and dad (of course) and the girls didn’t want to sit with the teen boys (of course) and so we took up the end seats of three rows.  A group of three teens approached my  teen boys, who happened to be in the last row in the back, and asked them if they would mind moving down to the end the line.   They did move with no fuss.  There were two girls and a boy; no parental guidance, I might add.

As the movie began, so did the engines of one of those girls and the boy.   Right from the get go, it was obvious why they wanted my sons to move farther down the line and to the inside wall of the theater.  They were not interested in the movie shall we say.  They were there for one reason only…even though they had a chaperone…a female of about the same age.  What age is that, you may ask?  Well, they appeared to be all of about 12 or 13…at the most 14 years of age.   Understand what I am saying here…they were approximately two to four years older than the birthday girl and her friends.

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Hormones will make you…

        This is a touchy subject.  I work with teens in a youth group.  I know the typical thought behind common references to hormones.  Some of those comments are based on fact.  Hormones will make you do things and act in ways that you do not always understand.

         Hormones are one wild roller coaster ride all through-out life.  The most chaotic time will be the teen years.  It is an extreme high and low each and every day.  Yesterday we had several teens being ruled by their hormones; making decisions that plunged other teens into the depths of despair.  Breaking up and choosing new partners all while doing so in painful and humiliating ways!  Ugggg…it is so hard growing up.

         At the same time, there was concern over some “missing in action” teen couple who were being unchaperoned in a very tempting environment.  Hmmm…not my kids; and yet, the parents knew and allowed the situation.  Is this right?  Consequences can be life-long.  Teaching and reminding them that Christ wants only good things in life for us and yet at the same time, telling them that they must wait till marriage is a bit like temptating them as well. 

         Back to the whole generic subject of hormones….they are our nemisis and our friend as human beings.  Our bodily organs function according to the natural levels of the hormones in our systems.  When they are out of whack it can cause all kinds of problems. 

         Couples wanting to start their families have to depend on the healthy well-being of those hormone levels to be in peak performance or their fertility is at risk.  Everything has to be just right for the miracle of birth.

          Each stage of life our hormones play a different part.  In menopause, the fluctuations of those levels have to be watched not only for comfort but also for health reasons.  Earlier in life we worry about how our hormones affect our moods and our relationships.

          Then there is the 28 day menstrual cycle for most women.  I was a victim of that roller coaster today.   Did i mention that i dont like roller coaster rides?  🙂  My poor husband was an innocent bystander.

         He read about a free adult full blooded yellow lab.  It needed a new home because the owners are loosing their home any day and can’t keep it.  They haven’t had any takers.  My husband wanted the dog because the husband of the woman advertising the dog said that if the dog wasn’t gone in a few days it would have to be put down.  It is six years old.  It hasn’t had it’s shots or license but it is in good health.

       My husband wanted to “save” the dog.  I didn’t want the dog to die.  But, the problem is that just last weekend i gave in to pressure (several years of it) from my children and my husband to get a dog.  Instead, we got two five week old puppies.  Black lab mix puppies to be exact.

      They are fun…they are cute and they are a whole lot of work.  We are training them and getting up every two hours.  On top of all of that…we live in michigan and times are tough.  It is hard enough to financially meet the needs of your own family without taking on extra responsibilities which i felt we had already done by taking on two new puppies.

      However, i was devastated to think that if we didn’t take in this adult female dog that it would die.  I was torn up as well, knowing that my husband not only wanted to save the dog; but also, has been wanting to get a full blooded lab again like we used to have.  All in all, i made myself sick with sadness and emotion.

      I had to distance myself for a few minutes and take a hot bath and re-group my emotions.  In the meantime, my husband called the dog owner only to find that they did get another call for the dog; but, they were waiting to find out if we were going to take her before they had the other family come to look at the dog.

      In the end, my husband and I are in agreement that if the other family doesn’t take the dog then the dog owner was instructed to call us back and we would take the dog long enough to find an appropriate home for her.  I feel so much better. 

      I still would have felt at crossroads about the poor dog’s situation, even if i wasn’t hormonal…but i don’t think i would have made myself sick with the situation.  I just felt so bad for the dog and at the same time…knew that we weren’t in the position at the moment to take on all three dogs permanently. 

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