My Experience Parenting a Sexually Active Teenager

Although I consider myself to be a progressive and open minded parent, it still was hard when I first found out my oldest daughter became sexually active at 14. We have always had very good communication and she knows she can trust me to be non judgemental and to be a good listener.

My daughter had been dating her boyfriend for six months when she told me that they came very close to having sex.

This is not something a parent wants to hear, even a liberal thinking mom like I am. I took a deep breath and tried to just listen as she told me about her "almost" first time.

After some tears from both her and I and some hugs, I reinforced how important safe sex was. She had already been on birth control due to an irregular period but I stressed the need for condoms everytime.

But to make a long story short, this was three years ago, and she and her boyfriend are still together. They are both very responsible young adults, who both do well in school. Their relationship has now evolved to a very serious but healthy and happy partnership. He does stay overnight on weekends at our house or she will stay at his house on occasion.

Although it's not easy at first to accept your child as being sexually active, we all survived and we continue to have a very close relationship.