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  • As a parenting coach, I get to talk to a lot of troubled teenagers.

  • About six years ago, I had a really interesting conversation

  • with a 16-year-old girl, who was on the phone

  • - this is me with the phone by the way -

  • and it was a coaching session; it was on a Monday.

  • I said, "Hi sweetie, how are you doing?"

  • And she says, "I'm doing OK."

  • I said, "That's good, how was your weekend?"

  • She said, "It was OK. I partied and the usual.

  • I drank a bit, and I met a new guy."

  • "Oh! What's he like?"

  • "He's OK. I didn't really like him that much, so I wouldn't let him kiss me."

  • "Good for you. I'm really proud of you!"

  • "So, I just gave him a blow job instead."

  • (Laughter)

  • True story, true story.

  • I always say that I could never be shocked because I've heard everything,

  • but that was the first time I've ever heard anything quite like that.

  • I was really glad it wasn't Skype and that she didn't see my reaction ...

  • (Laughter)

  • It's really good when you work from home: you don't care what you look like, so ...

  • I don't like it when a client says, "Can we do a video Skype?"

  • Oh, geez, anyway ...

  • (Laughter)

  • This young girl was right at the start of the hookup culture.

  • It progressed, it got worse and worse, and shortly after I talked to her --

  • I thought, maybe she was just a one-off --

  • but shortly after talking to her, I talked to a 14-year-old boy.

  • He said he was at a party, and they were drinking,

  • and there were all these kids there,

  • and he had shared his drink with this girl.

  • He said, "And afterwards, she wouldn't give me a blow job!"

  • So, I had experience with this now,

  • so I said, "Oh, what a bitch!"

  • (Laughter)

  • I admit, OK, that's not what I said ...

  • (Laughter)

  • Then I thought, how did we get here? Like, what is going on?

  • Am I that old that everyone else knows what's going on, and it's just me?

  • But no, of course not.

  • So I thought, let's go back in time to when I was a little girl.

  • This is not me.

  • (Laughter)

  • And I figure she probably wasn't getting much action even back then.

  • That was the style.

  • Back in the 60s, it was all about parenting,

  • and this is where the changes really started to happen.

  • In the 60s, moms generally didn't work.

  • That was the norm: all moms were home, and every house had a mom in it;

  • she had an apron, she was baking, she was gardening, all that stereotype.

  • She always had curlers in her hair, too.

  • Does anyone else remember that?

  • They never seemed to go anywhere, but had curlers in, all day long.

  • They'd be gardening with their curlers,

  • but the thing is us kids were watched.

  • Every parent knew every kid in the neighborhood,

  • and they thought nothing on tattling on us.

  • They'd phone up, "Dorothy, do you know what your little girl's doing?",

  • and we'd get a whack on the butt with a rolling pin.

  • We were looked after, we were watched, and the schools were disciplining us, too.

  • We get a ruler on the hand, or a belt on the butt.

  • I'm not saying it's good, but it was something.

  • So, kids respected adults as a result of this.

  • Let's go to the 70s now.

  • It's interesting, the reason I chose these pictures

  • is we all thought we looked like the one on the left,

  • in reality, we looked like the one on the right.

  • (Laughter)

  • We tried, we really tried. This was my teenage decade.

  • In the 70s, there was a big shift.

  • A lot of moms started going back to work.

  • With that, when she did get home after work, she was more tired, right?

  • She'd been at work all day; she didn't have the energy for the kids.

  • The term latchkey kids started coming in.

  • So, kids were coming home with the key.

  • They were letting themselves in, eating Twinkies, sitting on the couch,

  • watching "I Dream of Jeannie" or whatever; The Brady Bunch probably.

  • So, kids were on their own more.

  • As a result of this, they started losing respect for adults

  • because they were alone more.

  • They started looking to their peers a little bit more for guidance,

  • which we all know how that goes.

  • Also, schools were losing a lot of their power;

  • they could no longer discipline children.

  • But it just got worse.

  • (Laughter)

  • Well, not necessarily that, but in the 80s, pretty much the norm was:

  • all moms went back to work.

  • Because of this,

  • kids were getting more wild and less respectful of adults.

  • The school's hands were tied at this point.

  • There was all this new wave of parenting books coming out,

  • about being friends with your kids

  • and "Oh, don't say no to your children, that hurts their self-esteem."

  • Could you imagine, like my parents saying that,

  • "Oh, I don't want to say no, do whatever you want,"

  • it just started to really shift.

  • "You're a good girl, even though you just kicked the cat across the room."

  • (Laughter)

  • It is ridiculous, but this became the norm.

  • So, be friends with your kids.

  • The schools, of course, are losing more and more power.

  • Not only that, they are being asked to do more parenting.

  • So, they had to start teaching kids

  • about nutrition, about manners, even hygiene and sex.

  • I thought that was appropriate, the hair gel she used, but ...

  • (Laughter)

  • I loved that movie.

  • The 90s are more of the 80s,

  • but the big thing that really started to come in was computers.

  • But back then, they were big clunky things.

  • Usually, they were in a communal area where everyone could use them,

  • and a lot of the gaming consoles came in.

  • So, what was happening here?

  • Parenting is going really downhill;

  • they're not providing their children with leadership.

  • Then the computers are starting to take over.

  • If you don't provide your children with leadership,

  • of course will turn somewhere else.

  • They were going towards all these gaming things,

  • the games that were on there were violent,

  • so it just started from there.

  • You know, you look at a 12-year-old girl these days,

  • and that's pretty much what she looks like.

  • It's like you can't even ...

  • I feel sorry for men who are looking at women.

  • I saw a guy the other day, checking out this girl,

  • and I said to him, "You know, she's about 13 years old,"

  • and he went, "No way! She's like 25."

  • I said, "No, she's like 13, I just saw her in school the other day."

  • (Laughter)

  • So, he's like running, you know, after that.

  • (Laughter)

  • But the big difference with this: now we've got the Internet.

  • I remember when my kids were younger,

  • I used to go to these school meetings at night, where they'd say,

  • "Here's how you block your kids

  • from seeing all this horrible stuff on the Internet."

  • I was at the back, laughing.

  • I thought, were we ever going to be able

  • to outsmart young people when it came to technology?

  • Like, what are we thinking?

  • I was the only one that wasn't going, "Oh, yes."

  • I was at the back, like, "This is useless."

  • They're always going to be smarter than us because to them, it isn't technology.

  • It's just like buttering toast. It's everyday to them.

  • But the big change was about six years ago,

  • when I talked to this girl, it coincided.

  • It came with the smartphones.

  • All of a sudden, they had mobile technology.

  • They were on the Internet for everything.

  • That's where they went;

  • because they weren't going to their parents.

  • So, where are they going to go?

  • Not to the schools,

  • they didn't trust adults, they didn't respect us.

  • Oh, sorry about that silly slide, I don't know what I was thinking.

  • It was late when I did that. What am I, like grade four?

  • Anyway, what do all these decades have in common

  • - every single one of them, and probably before that, too?

  • It's none of the parents were really talking to their kids about sex.

  • None of them were.

  • You'd get the odd family who would do that,

  • but overall, it just wasn't discussed in families.

  • I used to say to families, when my kids were growing up,

  • how do you talk to your kids about sex?

  • "Oh, I don't do that. It's just awkward. They go to school and learn that.

  • Oh, it's just so awkward."

  • So, they don't seem to do that.

  • Because I am a parenting coach, I talk to a lot of families:

  • none of them were talking to their kids about sex.

  • They say, "Oh no, they had a guy talking about sex at their school the other day."

  • If they miss that day, they're going to miss that talk,

  • and they've only got so much information they can pack into two hours.

  • They do a very good job, I'm not putting them down,

  • but they always have that-- we all know what that is.

  • They have a banana that they're showing,

  • and they put a condom on the banana.

  • Then everyone laughs, and it gets awkward, and there's a lot of stuff that's missed.

  • Where are they going for information on sex?

  • They're not talking to their parents,

  • the sex speakers that come into schools are giving the minimal;

  • of course, they're going to pornography.

  • Every single parent that I've talked to of a teenager, all say,

  • "Are they looking at porn?"

  • Every single parent says, "I don't think so. No, I don't think so."

  • (Laughter)

  • Unfortunately, when I'm talking to their kids, it's all confidential.

  • So, I can't tell them, but ...

  • Here again, I'm glad it's not on video because I'm going

  • (laughs muffled)

  • They told me that's all they do: they're up all night watching porn.

  • This is what they're doing.

  • The interesting thing that's happening though

  • is that younger and younger children are doing this

  • because their older siblings are doing this, watching porn.

  • It's mobile.

  • An older sibling will put down a phone and not have it locked,

  • and there will be some porn thing on there,

  • an eight-year-old will come along and go, "Whew! What's this?"

  • And then they don't have anyone to talk to because they know that's "bad".

  • They can't talk to Mom and Dad because no one does that, right?

  • So, they really are learning from pornography.

  • How do I know they're watching porn?

  • They tell me all the time.

  • I'll even ask eight-year-olds.

  • I say, "What do you look at on the Internet?"

  • Sometimes they'll tell me they've been watching, they call it "sexy stuff".

  • (Laughter)

  • I don't think it's sexy.

  • OK, so they tell me they're watching porn.

  • What's interesting about this is when younger children see it,

  • they haven't got a clue what they're looking at.

  • They think - and this is true - they think that's what Mommy and Daddy do.

  • They think that that's exactly what Mommy and Daddy are doing;

  • so there could be threesomes or orgies.

  • They've got this in their head that that is what's happening.

  • (Laughter)

  • You know where I'm going with this, right?

  • I would say, the age group that is bald are probably anywhere from

  • -- it changes all the time.

  • I'm trying to keep up with all this stuff,

  • but they really give me a run for my money, here -

  • they are about 13 to17, 18, 19.

  • They're pretty much all bold.

  • Not necessarily sexually active. I'll tell you a funny story.

  • It's not a funny story, it's actually quite sad,

  • but there's a little bit of humor in it.

  • (Laughter)

  • These parents hired me,

  • and they said, "Our poor boy is like suicidal."

  • You know, I specialize in crisis.

  • So, I said, "OK, I need to talk to him.

  • Give me his Facebook page; I'll organize a session with him."

  • I'm talking to him, and I said, "What happened, sweetie, what's going on?"

  • He says, "I'm getting bullied at school,"

  • and I said, "Oh, that's terrible!

  • Tell me what's going on; take me through a day."

  • He said that it all started

  • when he started in this new private boys' school, very nice area,

  • and they were in the locker room or the change room,

  • and they were getting changed, and everyone was bald except him.

  • All the boys were bald.

  • They pointed at him and laughed,

  • and the poor kid was labeled as "Hairy-something."

  • - I can't remember what the second thing was -

  • but this poor kid was ostracized and bullied because he wasn't shaving.

  • Did we know this?

  • I had no idea the stuff was going on.

  • That is a direct result of pornography.

  • Where else do they get that idea from?

  • Not the sex talker at school. Not Mom and Dad.

  • That's pornography.

  • OK, this is where it gets a little bit awkward for me

  • because I'm a little bit uncomfortable sharing this stuff.

  • This is the least of the >...

  • an example of the least disgusting party game that is very common,

  • and it's called "rainbow parties", I'm sure you maybe heard of this.

  • I looked it up on Wikipedia the other day, and it said it's an urban legend.

  • It's not.

  • Kids are doing this.

  • The girls will go to a party

  • - there's, of course, drugs and alcohol involved -

  • they'll either do their lips that way

  • or they will layer them in different colors.

  • Then they drag their mouth down the guy's penis,

  • leaving a rainbow behind.

  • If they don't do that,

  • then they have to drink two or three shots:

  • it's like a drinking game.

  • Lots of fun, eh?

  • Crazy, crazy.

  • And that's one of the not so bad ones.

  • I couldn't even repeat some of the other ones.

  • Too embarrassing.

  • How do we redefine the norm

  • and change the way future generations view sex?

  • I want to make it clear that not all kids are doing this,

  • but it is the norm, and I think it's only going to get worse.

  • As a matter of fact, I know it is, because over the last six years,

  • it's gotten worse and worse with my clients.

  • All we have to do is talk. We start talking about sex with our kids.

  • A lot of you here are younger, but you are the parents of tomorrow.

  • You have to change what's going on. You have to talk to your kids about sex.

  • It's always awkward. I'll tell you a funny story.

  • Well, one story; then another one; one leads to the other.

  • I have two kids.

  • My oldest was three, my son,

  • and he's just seen a girl naked for the very first time that day.

  • I could see it in his face, he was really checking her out.

  • Later on,

  • and I knew I had a journal I used to write funny things in,

  • so I knew it was going to come out that night.

  • So, he says to me, "Mommy, boys and girls are different, right?"

  • And I'm trying not to go, "Yeah!", but I just said, "Yeah."

  • He said, "Because boys have a bum in the back and a penis in the front."

  • I said, "Right," and he said,

  • "And girls have a bum in the back and a tiny little bum in the front."

  • (Laughter)

  • It's true. Really!

  • Anyway, I thought I'd better have a talk with this boy.

  • So, I said, "Well, OK, you know, these are your private parts,

  • they're yours; you're not allowed to let anyone else touch them."

  • You know, all the safety stuff.

  • And then I said, "But you can touch your private parts.

  • That's perfectly normal, everybody does it,

  • but it's private."

  • He said, without skipping a beat,

  • "Do you do it too, Mommy?"

  • (Laughter)

  • I said, "Want to bake some cookies?"

  • (Laughter)

  • My daughter is actually here today, but five years later she came to me,

  • three years old, same conversation.

  • I said, "Tada, tada, tada, it's private, everyone does it ..."

  • She says, "Do you do it too, Mommy?"

  • Now, I had an eight-year-old by this time, I had progressed, I had grown.

  • So my response to her was,

  • "Want to bake some cookies?"

  • (Laughter)

  • I couldn't deal with it.

  • But my point with that is it's always going to be awkward and embarrassing.

  • I'm not one of those people, even when I'm talking to teenagers,

  • I don't think it should be blasé.

  • I still think sex is--

  • there's an element: if it's awkward to talk about it, it just is.

  • It's just natural to feel that way.

  • So, when you are talking to kids though it's a little bit--

  • There's a couple of rules that I tell my clients.

  • I say, "When you're talking to kids, it's age appropriate."

  • A three-year-old doesn't need to know the same things as a 13-year-old.

  • Just say to them, "We'll discuss it when you're older."

  • That's it, and then go bake some cookies, whatever.

  • But also: you don't discuss your sex life.

  • Your three-year-old does not need to know

  • what Mom and Dad are doing rolling around in the hay.

  • It's just not necessary.

  • They will ask questions though; it's not appropriate.

  • So, in order to change the norm, I think we have to learn how to talk about it.

  • And if you have to bake cookies, racks and racks of cookies, then do so,

  • but don't let that stop you

  • from discussing these things with your children.

  • Thank you very much.

  • (Applause)

As a parenting coach, I get to talk to a lot of troubled teenagers.

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TEDx】不性感的真相,勾搭文化|Lisa Bunnage|TEDxSFU--------。 (【TEDx】The unsexy truth, the hookup culture | Lisa Bunnage | TEDxSFU)

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    VoiceTube posted on 2021/01/14
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