Moms Talk Q&A

Moms Talk is a new feature on Plymouth Patch that is part of a new initiative on our Patch sites to reach out to parents and families. 

Plymouth Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for parents and their families right here in Plymouth.

Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council of smart parents take your questions, give advice and share solutions.

Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for questions about local neighborhood schools, the best pediatricians, 24-hour pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children.

Moms Talk will also be the place to drop in for a talk about the latest parenting hot topic. Do you know of local parents raising their children in the Tiger Mother's way and is it the best way? Where can we get information on local flu shot clinics for children? How do we talk to our children about the Tucson shootings? How can we help our children's schools weather their budget cutbacks? How do you handle it when your teenager comes home with her hair in bright green liberty spikes?

So grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation today with a question from Plymouth Patch's Mom Council:

The Story

Last month Plymouth Police charged two teens with sexual misconduct for playing a game on the school bus. The game, called “The Nervous Game” has become an Internet trend. According to www.urbandictionary.com, the Nervous Game consists of one person putting his or her hands on different parts of another person’s body, beginning at the head and moving down the rest of the body, while asking “are you nervous.” The first person stops when the other person says yes.

Last month police charged two boys with indecent assault and battery after allegedly playing the game with girls on the bus.

One 15-year-old boy was accused of forcing a girl to touch him improperly. Another boy on the same bus has been charged with open and gross lewdness. Police say the second boy exposed himself to other students on the same bus ride.

PCIS principal Brian Palladino held a school assembly to address the incidents, discussing personal space and the importance of keeping your hands to yourself.

Our Question

Do you think the schools have the right idea? Do you see teenagers being more sexually active than a decade ago? Or when you were a student?

How would you, as the parent of a teenager, deal with this?

The Moms Council's response

As the parent of younger children, I practically start to break out in hives when I hear stories like these and think about what the future will shortly bring. But, if I had children at the middle-school level, or if something comparable happened at the elementary-school level, I would be grateful to know that the head of the school was addressing this issue head-on.  Even if a school assembly doesn’t necessarily “solve” the problem, this type of outreach does, I believe, help foster communication, which, cliché as it is, is key for healthy relationships, whether between a student and school official, or between a child and his or her parent or guardian.

Whether sex is more prevalent now than it was a generation or two ago I cannot speak to; however, this generation definitely has more convenient and efficient means of perpetuating their curiosity and boundary-pushing – whether through texting, e-mail or online access via smartphone, iPod, or even the now old-fashioned family computer. Parents need to be smarter than ever when it comes to knowing what kind of extracurricular education their children are receiving, whether while they’re on a bus or on Facebook – and the number one way to be better informed, I believe, is by fostering honest and open conversations based on trust.  And with that, parents need all the help they can get.   

Tomorrow Plymouth Patch will post another question for the Moms Council to tackle, feel free to ask your own questions, respond to the question, agree, disagree, or offer an example. At Plymouth Patch we encourage civil discourse on local, regional and national issues.