Reproduction and Parenting

I found this website to be very interesting. It is what I believe to be a professional article about a survey taken with IVF children and families with their own biological child. The survey was done to determine the similarities and differences between the two different families.

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/4/1116



I think I am so very lucky to have stumbled across this website. This website is actually about a group called "Lambda Legal", and they are working to create equal treatment for all people. And the website had some interesting statistics on what they called "LGBT parents", which stands for lesbian, gay, bi- sexual and trans gendered parents.

http://www.lambdalegal.org/our-work/issues/marriage-relationships-family/parenting/

Marriage

(b) given the combination of rising costs of weddings and the decreased stigma of cohabitation and pre-marital sex, do you think that marriage has become more of an luxury, or an option, than a required passage to adulthood??

I think that marriages have become more of an option than a required passage to adulthood. I think that people aren't placing that high of a value on marriage, people are now just getting married to change their social status and to get a tax right off. More and more people are cohabiting and having pre- marital sex because it has become socially acceptable. But at the same time people are choosing to get married because of the social status that comes with it.

Domestic partnership

(b) How are domestic partnership agreements different from marriage?? What are the advantages of domestic partnership as compared to marriage?? The disadvantages??

Domestic Partners are not legally bonded together, like a marriage. The advantages to this lifestyle, is that the partners can choose to leave the partnership at any time, and there is no legal expenses. The downfall is that not many companies give benfits to those in a domestic partnership.

(a.) Go to the following website and check out the information on talking about sex with your kids. How does the advice given on this website compare to how you learned about sex?? How does the way that a person talks about sex to her/his children communicate attitudes about sex?? How does it communicate attitudes about sex in the culture??

I personally wasn't given the birds and bees talk, I feel like I missed out on a typical childhood story. But I know that my dad was just personally to embarrassed to have that talk with me, so I learned about it all in sixth grade. I think it was more awkward learning about sex in school then it would have been with my dad. I personally know what communication style can do to " the dreaded talk". Because my dad never had "the talk" with me, its a well known thing between the two of us that it is a taboo subject that you just don't discuss. I think it is very important for parents to have an open mind when having this discussion with their child. And with the availability of the internet, it could become a project to research unknown facts together.