From kid-friendly drag shows to sexualized merchandise on the shelves of Target, it’s getting harder and harder to keep our children innocent. Our kids are fed sex-driven content in their cartoons, they’re delivered lingerie-wearing toys for their birthdays, and they’re taught about eroticism in their sex-ed class. What’s “too far” for us as Christ-centered moms, why do LGBTQ+ issues wrap themselves into this conversation, and where are we choosing to draw the line?
>> Show Notes
From kid-friendly drag shows to sexualized merchandise on the shelves of Target, it’s getting harder and harder to keep our children innocent. Our kids are fed sex-driven content in their cartoons, they’re delivered lingerie-wearing toys for their birthdays, and they’re taught about eroticism in their sex-ed class. What’s “too far” for us as Christ-centered moms, why do LGBTQ+ issues wrap themselves into this conversation, and where are we choosing to draw the line?
>> Show Notes
You're probably going to hate us, but we're conservative Christian moms.
Amy:We're here to empower other conservative Christian moms to speak up, say what's true, and defend their children's futures. I'm Amy and I'm the often two serious mother of twin.
Candace:I'm Candy Rose, and I'm the often two honest mother of three.
Nikki:And I'm Nikki and I'm the often two emotional mother of two from kid friendly drag shows to sexualized merchandise on the shelves of Target. It's getting harder and harder to keep our children innocent. Our kids are fed sex driven content. In their cartoons, they're delivered lingerie, wearing toys for their birthdays, and they're taught about eroticism in their sex ed classes. What's too far for us as Christ-centered moms? And where are we choosing to draw the line? Pull up a chair. Let's discuss
Amy:Yay. A happy, bubbly topic.. Just kidding.
Candace:I was gonna say, where do we even start? I don't know.
Amy:So, I mean, my perspective comes from someone who has young kids. You guys have had young kids and now your kids are older. So it'll be interesting to sort of hear like where we've each drawn the line and what bothers us as different as, you know, moms with different experiences and different types of kids. I'll share some things that are sort of top of mind for me.
Candace:Okay.
Amy:I feel like our kids are sexualized for almost from infancy. Almost immediately there's sexualized things available to them. So like I remember in 2020 when the whole LOL dolls thing came out. LOL dolls, if you guys don't remember, are like these really cute little. Sassy dolls with like big heads and big eyes and they were, they were really popular for kids to collect. My kids. I didn't have any, I mean, my kids were too young when it started. I didn't have any, when it got really popular, my kids were too young. Anyway, all that to say, it came out that these LOL dolls, if you stuck them in water, had lingerie on. So I'll link a video. Yes. I'll link a video and, um,
Candace:I didn't, I don't know any of this. Ew.
Amy:My nieces loved them, and so I had to go through this whole, like, okay, not buying any more of those. but they do, I'll, if you guys go look at the video, I recommend you do really quickly. It's a, it's from like a news source, but it's just videos of all these moms trying their, dipping their LOL dolls in water and seeing, I mean, fishnets thongs, like we're not just talking about like an underwear and a bra. We're talking about actual lingerie
Candace:Ew.
Amy:that only
Nikki:was it advertised? I don't remember. Was it advertised that
Amy:No, they, they put out some kind of statement that was like, this will never happen again. But I'm like, you guys are, first of all, so full of it. And second of all, why did it happen in the
Candace:Yeah. Why did it happen in the first place? What in the world?
Amy:this was not an
Nikki:doesn't seem like a harmless mistake, like that costs money to do to the dolls to have chemical reaction.. I mean, this is not a light decision.
Candace:Yeah.
Amy:it had to go through a lot of approvals too. They pretended like it was some kind of, you know, oh, it got through one person. Like, no, it didn't. You had a team of designers doing this. This is ridiculous, And so then you have things like, yeah, so before I had kids, we used to watch this cartoon called Stephen Universe. Which is very dorky. Like if you're kind of a geeky type of person, it's the kind of show you might have watched even if you didn't have kids, because it's just that kind of show. and it's super cute. There's this really cute little kid in it and he sings these funny songs and it's just very likable show. But it was obvious really quickly in watching this show that it's uh, it's sort of a pro lesbian plus.. so I'll read you an excerpt about a couple of these characters. Okay. Rose, quartz and pearl. So this little boy, he's, he's a little boy who's part alien and he lives with his alien like aunts and stuff.
Candace:Is, wait, I have a question.,is this a kids show?
Amy:Yes. It's a kid show.
Candace:Okay,
Amy:It's a kid show. It's cartoon. It's for little kids.
Candace:I yeah, I don't know it, so I'm just
Amy:It's re I would say it came out, I don't remember when in the last five or six years.
Candace:Okay.
Amy:so Rose Quartz and Pearl are two female aliens of two different classes. One's a leader and the other is a handmaid. In particular, rose is coded as pansexual and she experiments with romances with pearl and human men and women alike while Pearl and Rose do not have a permanent fusion like Garnet. So there's this other character Garnet who like is fused with someone else. Perman. Okay. They partake in romantic fusion form by performing e sensual dance. So they do the sensual dance in order to fuse together. Ultimately, Pearl enters a love triangle with Rose's, human lover, Greg, the man who wins rose's heart and the father's the latter's child.
Nikki:What? I'm just like so confused.
Amy:Yeah.
Nikki:what is
Amy:So there's lots of like pansexual. We're all the same gender. There is no gender. Yeah. So another example in season ones alone, together, it's an episode. Stephen and his human friend, Connie Fus into a form called Stevie. Who goes by the gender neutral they them pronouns. In their debut episode, Steve Galvan off to explore the physicality of their form and expresses both exhilaration and trepidation over navigating this new body, human women and men alike. Show attraction to the androgynous Steve, who best represents youths by identifying as non-binary or gender queer. this show came out. before all this other stuff has been coming out. Like now we're all, there's lots of like trans stuff happening. This was years before that, but this is a kid show. Okay, this is a kid show. It's four children and somehow it's totally cool that like we would normalize this, is just one example, right?
Candace:That's super weird. I mean, honestly oh, I don't know. Like for to put so much sexualization of any form in a children's show. Why would kids wanna watch any sort of romantic anything that's not even,
Nikki:My kids are always like, Ew, gross still, and they're like 10 and 13 and they're still like, oh, why are they kissing? You know, even Princess Bride, I guess let's just, obviously as conservative Christian moms, first of all, let's just, we have to put out there, we believe that God created them, male and female. So we only believe in the two genders, male and female. And we believe marriage is between in man and woman. I know we kind of all navigate through that a little bit differently. I guess I'm taking away from the, that point of the cartoons, but I just wanted to say this in case people were like wondering or curious. but I'm a wedding photographer and I know a lot of people have been offended at me and even accused me of not acting like a Christian because I have done trans weddings, I have done, gay weddings. I have done all kinds. And then when people ask me how I feel about it, I'm like, you know what? The world. Is what it is. And I don't, for me personally, I don't feel like it's a place for me to say, no, I'm not gonna serve one person or, or the other. For myself, I live by what the, what the word is saying. And I'm not saying, I think people interpret it differently. I do think some people do. I, I probably would disagree or argue with them if we were like going, you know, head to head on what the word's saying. But I also feel like it's not my position to judge them and not serve them or love them well, because I also do people who aren't Christians. I've done Hindu weddings, I've done Buddhist, not, not Buddhist. Oh no. I've done every kind of wedding. People who are living together, people who have children together, all that kind of stuff. So all that's to say we do believe this, but we're not here to not love anybody. We're not here to like condemn anybody. We have plenty of friends who are gay, trans, all the things. We are Christian conservative women, so this is what we're gonna stand up for and fight for. I think. I just wanted to say that
Candace:Very nice. Thank you. Nikki
Nikki:I don't know, I just wanted to put it out there cuz it, it seems like, it seems harder and harder for people to understand. Where people are coming from. Like I have Christian conservative friends that think gay marriage and all that stuff is whatever, you know, everyone has a different point of view. So I don't even know if we're all speaking the same language, we're getting further and further away from a time where people think, and I don't wanna say wrong cuz like anything outside of God's will is wrong. So judgment is wrong. You know, like it's not my place. I just pray for people who. aren't walking the way that God has called us to walk, that God would return us all to repentance. Whether that is judging, whether that is drinking too much, whether that is eating too much, whether that is, whatever it is, insert, whatever it is. But I think the part that's hard about this is people want it to be okay, there's a lot of, you know, I don't know. Somebody pick up or finish the thought for me, just, am I making sense?
Amy:Yeah. Well, it's a totally, I mean, the reality is that this has become an extremely kind of like abortion. It's become an extremely personal journey. What was once ex something you could be removed from. You could say you believe something, but it didn't have any personal effect on you, and so you could sort of easily believe it or judge it has become extremely personal. Many homosexual friends who I love very much, people I see regularly, but I was ex actually explaining this to someone the other day, and it was the first time I explained it in a way that I was like, okay, , that made sense. Because you can say, well, the Bible's really clear about homosexuality and then just sort of leave it and it. Like, okay. It's clear about a lot of things, , like you said, lots of other sins, right? So the way I explained this was this and it, this is becoming more, I think true the older I get. God's law exists in a certain way for a very specific purpose. The entire Bible is just a story of God losing his intimacy and closeness to the people he created, and then just trying to get that back and not, I don't mean like trying as if he can't, but his, it's his whole plan and his extensive, Divine workings to get us back to a place where we can be in closeness with him. so in the New Testament, no longer do we have to go into a tabernacle. We actually just get to invite the Holy Spirit into our, into us and be close to him. And until, You know, God's kingdom comes until we are actually in his presence. That's the closest we get right now. So the whole Bible is just us trying to be close to God and God trying to be close to us, more importantly. So his guidance and his laws are all about what brings us close to him. And I believe the Bible is really clear about homosexual relationships. I believe it's outside of God's.
Candace:Mm.
Amy:so we as Christians, I feel, and again, a lot of people have different convictions about this, and part of that is because of how personal it is. and as Nikki said, we're not here to judge, but my personal, where I'm convicted, is that things that exist outside of God's boundaries keep us from being in closeness to God. They don't necessarily keep us. Being saved. This is not a conversation about if you're homosexual or you saved, that's not those conversation right? This conversation is, is there sin in your life that is keeping you from closeness to God? So I believe we have to really hold firm to those standards and boundaries, especially in a world that has none.
Candace:Mm-hmm.
Amy:relative truth is not my gig. That is not God's world relative truth.
Candace:Mm-hmm.
Amy:God exists in real Capital T Firm truth. And so,
Nikki:that's really good.
Amy:you know, we, we know that homosexuality doesn't lead to life and reproduction and all of these things. It doesn't lead us to closeness with God. So, you know, that's where that's where I stand and that's where I believe the Bible stands.
Nikki:So I just had like a light bulb moment because like it's, for me, I feel like I was a little bit not lenient cuz I, I kind of am more ambivalent. It's not something that I'd have to deal with or live, I'm, it's not a lived experience for me. So I don't think about it that much. And like most things, I'm not gonna condemn people or. Get 'em out of my life or not capture their weddings or whatever. I, you know, I have friends that I love dearly. And maybe I might have even been a little bit more affirming at some time, but what happens is that is okay. And then all of a sudden it starts infiltrating culture more and more and then targeted at the kids. And the reason that's not okay is I think it can be a learned behavior. I have some friends that are like, bye or not, you know, whatever. They're like. Anything goes when anything goes. I, I'm not. I hate to judge it, but it does seem like when anything goes, anything goes, you know?, whereas I have other friends that are like, man, no. I am like a hundred percent. I'm a hundred percent gay. I would never be interested in the opposite sex. And honestly, they, they're like, and I feel okay with it and I feel like God's okay with me. And I'm like, okay, well I guess if you've prayed about it and you know, like that, I just leave it to them. It's between them and God. But I think where it gets the sexualization part is that. It seems like, cuz I, one time we were doing a photo shoot near a gay pride parade. And it seems like within that culture is more sex period., I thought a gay pride would be just like beautiful and rainbows and like, yay, we get to love each other. But it was like a debauchery, there was just naked people and people having sex on the street and used condoms everywhere. And yeah, I mean, maybe I happened to catch a bad angle of it. I, I just was a little bit shocked at, you know, like, everyone wearing ette, the bondage stuff. I, I did not feel like it was a beautiful celebration of anything but, sex lots and lots of sex . So then you have that culture that, that then is gonna go to kids like the drag stuff, in what world? I've been seeing everywhere drag shows. for kids. In what world is it okay to wear? some of the stuff I've seen, I'm trying to, I'm like doing this , what is it called? Uh, like a cup for your junk. A cup for your junk and shake it in the kid's face. And just because you're a drag that's okay. Sorry, , I just deviated so far off into from this, I know we're, this is about sexualizing a children, but it's all somehow interconnected I guess. And I don't know exactly how, but it. I'm trying to piece together in my mind how I feel it's related.
Candace:Yeah.
Amy:that I think is, is hard. And even before having this podcast, I was thinking about that. Like where are my boundaries and why are my boundaries there? And so when it comes to kids shows, for instance, I do think that, and I've actually talked to some of my homosexual friends about this, specifically what you're talking about, cuz I have homosexual friends who are not about that. and they don't like the culture. They don't participate in that culture, but they still are homosexual. But I do think what's, what's so unique about homosexuality, and same can be true with like some of the trans and like stuff happening, is that your sexuality becomes your identity. And there there's not a lot of other places for that to go Other. This is who I am and it's what I do. You know, like we're heterosexual. It doesn't, it's not our identity. I'm Amy, and you're Nicki and you're candy, and you know what I mean? Like, it's just a different, it's kind of a different world. I do think it definitely comes along and brings a lot, a lot of identity and sexuality, but when it comes to cartoons, for instance, that have LGBTQ. Stuff in them. I, I don't think it's inherently sexualized, like I don't think it's inherently sexualizing our children. where I draw the line isn't about. being sexualized, it's about entering. Having my children enter into a world where there's a norm that's not God's kingdom.
Candace:Mm.
Amy:I don't allow LGBTQ content for my children because they're four years old, and right now all they need to understand is God's kingdom. They're having enough struggles., understanding who they are, who they're created to be. Understanding what a relationship like my relationship with my husband is crucial, and them seeing them, seeing God's image of the church, in marriage, seeing that in a healthy way is crucial right now. They've gotta see that everywhere they look. And then on top of that, they're gonna have enough problems sort of. God's kingdom versus the world they live in. They're so detached and they're so not the same, and that's what they need to be dealing with right now. I don't need to, I don't personally believe in normalizing the homosexuality, so there's no reason for me to show it to them, but I don't need another, another element of like perverting God's kingdom entered into their little brains to try to sort through right now, but I don't think it inherently is sexual. It can be like anything can be right. That's sexualized.
Candace:Yeah, I, this is, it feels like we're in such a, like a broad topic because, uh, sexualization is like one topic, but then I feel like we've bled over a little into another. And I feel like right now in our culture, we're letting kids , the, the children, like four-year-olds dictate, we're letting them dictate who they are and what they are. Even though, Amy, what you just said is perfect, it's our job when they're so young to teach them who they are and, and what they are. I was recently talking to a friend who works in a daycare and. There's a little, I believe it was a little girl who's decided that she is a lion, and not only are the parents encouraging and like addressing her that way, but so is the teacher and so are all the kids in the class. I just, and, and that, that's, I, I just, I can't wrap my mind around that.
Amy:It's so upsetting,
Candace:It, it's, it is, it's so upsetting. What do you mean your four year old said? when I was a little girl, I used to play animals all the time. Me and my sister loved to pretend like we were animals. When we were little girls. My sister loved to take her shirt off and say, when I grow up, I'm gonna be a boy. But if you were to talk to her now, she loves being a woman and she's married with two kids and she loves her life. I think it's crazy just seeing what I've seen in a. With five kids. Kids are silly. Kids are exploring, kids are learning. Like of course they wanna pretend to be an animal. Of course they wanna be, I mean, not all of us pretended to be the opposite sex, but some of us did. And that's okay. And now we're
Nikki:Oh, we
Candace:we're letting, we're letting, our kids tell us life-changing decisions at 4, 5, 6 years old. That's, that's crazy. But I don't know if this is, again, I feel like this is such a broad topic cuz I don't know if that. Sexualization
Nikki:Maybe that's where there's some confusion or That's why I felt like bringing up the L G T B Q stuff, or maybe Amy, you did even, I think the reason is like, . I feel like it, that started happening a lot longer ago. When we were teens, maybe there was one or two people that were gay in school. But it seems like along with that culture of, okay, we're gonna be gay or whatever has come with it, it gets aimed younger and younger at like, okay, let's let them decide what they wanna be, what they are, and then somehow, it feels like there's an elimination altogether. I've watched there, I read a lot of sci-fi books, and in a future world, it is pretty common that you wouldn't look at anybody for a gender or whatever. You would fall in love with a person's personality. It's a very futuristic ideology. But then with that, you're gonna also get, there's no age, you know? Like why does it matter if a 50 year old man has feelings for a 10 year old girl? It's like you're falling in love with the person. I see something wrong with it and it, but it's really hard cuz I'm also like, I am probably of the three of us the most maybe conflict, like not conflicted, but I've probably wavered the most. Like I'm always, I have so many gay friends and, and like my parents started off with like, no, this is wrong. But both of them have kind of like fallen away. Like both of them have kind of come back now, but they're a little bit more universalist in their thinking. Talks with my fam. My parents are very much like, well, why not let you know people, whoever they wanna get married, and why not let them adopt all the kids who don't wanna, don't have homes? And so it, it is really hard to think like, why not let two consenting adults do? And, and honestly, the way I vote life matters to me. So obviously I'm gonna vote. for life, but I've not always voted that way. You know, that's another talk for another day politically, cuz I don't care. I mean like I never felt like it mattered until now where the lines are starting to be pushed younger and the kids are getting confused and we're cutting off parts. So yes, this is like three topics that are bleeding into each other. It's homosexuality, transgender and sexualization. Cuz somehow it all. Uh, it all converges on this as, as we're trying to be like, okay, why are the kids being sexualized and it's for this purpose? I think ultimately for pedophilia is my, which I'm not saying is a gay thing. I'm not saying if you're gay, you're automatically a pedophile, but somehow that might be the pedophiles way of getting into this group of people and putting out. Does that make sense? I'm not saying all gay people are pedophiles. I'm not saying all straight people are pedophiles, but within both of those groups are pedophiles that are using this as their catalyst of being able to move that movement. Does that make sense?
Candace:Yes. Yes. I, If, if we're desensitizing all things sexual, then yes. It only makes sense that eventually we would become so depraved Yeah. That that would be
Nikki:Okay, thank you. That's so, that's where, but, I will say it is hard, like I've had lots of talks with the Lord, with my friends. I go back and forth on it a lot cuz I'm just like, I am not. I, those people aren't hurting me, so why am I gonna, you know, so I'm probably more liberal in that because I, I struggle with that if you're not a Christian. And Yeah, I'm more libertarian. Yes, I'm much more libertarian if you're not hurting me. Do what you want. Um, where I start getting, Upset is when the kids are like, um, Barry Weiss, her honestly podcast, I've listened to that a lot. She's actually lesbian and liberal. She used to w write for the New York ti. Um, I can't remember what, but she actually had a really good podcast. We probably should link it about how this is actually contagious, like the more it.. If five kids are all trans, then you know the next 20 you're gonna be just because it is like a social construct. It's like, oh, I can decide. And it's actually ultimately not very good for society. So just a lot of thoughts. I'm, they're very disorganized cuz I don't know what to do with it.
Amy:I definitely think everything's connected and part of the reason I think that, that they're connected is because they are related in the end all to gender, gender identity.
Candace:yeah.
Amy:Homosexuality is also related to gender identity and, and, like attraction. But in the end, I mean, my perspective, I think the biblical perspective is like this is all perversion of God's intention and it. Not of God's kingdom. And so that is confusion
Candace:Yeah.
Amy:It's all just a ton of confusion, all muddled together. And if history is any sign of what is possible for the future, I mean, ancient Rome was just a bunch of people using each other however they wanted. It was glorified, it was totally normalized and of any age. So I've had conversations with people before about like when gay marriage was a thing, you know, should we allow. had conversations with people and I kind of was like, you, Nikki, I wasn't sure. I didn't want my politics and my faith to be muddled together to the point that I was like, I dunno, I didn't know where to stand on the issue. I knew what I believed, but that doesn't mean that I should keep other people from getting married. Right. But I would have conversations about, like one of my big concerns is the slippery slope. And that if love is love, quote unquote, then when does that stop? And I had a lot of people come back at me like, that's ridiculous. Love is, we know what's wrong and right. Well, how come if everything's relative? Truth is relative. If you can get canceled tomorrow and be the hero the day before, why is love, love being love? why can that not transition itself into pedophilia being totally normalized? And now we're literally seeing that happen, which is like the most horrifying thing. and
Nikki:What is it called?
Amy:lot of us said
Nikki:or a minor attracted person?
Amy:maps. Yeah. Yes. Which I've mentioned before, I personally know pedophilia who would be totally against that concept. So, I, I just think that this is why we have to be like as, as conservative Christian moments, we have to constantly be introspective, like, where are our boundaries? What do we believe? Why do we believe that? What does the Bible say? Because this stuff sneaks up and sneaks in and. and it sneaks up and sneaks in. Even when we're vigilant, we can be super vigilant and home because sin is the worst. and Satan is sneaky. And so I think we have to stand a little bit. We're in a, we're in a seasoned culture in America. We have to stand a little more firm and a little more. our boundaries might be different, but we sure as heck better have them and they better be based on what the Bible's telling you. Because otherwise it's all just whatever. You can do whatever and be whoever, and it's all just meaningless, you know?
Candace:yeah. I agree.
Nikki:Yeah. You talk about not being canceled, I guess I wish that it was that way more because I feel like, I feel like that's the only thing that makes me wanna jump ship. Totally. And. only on the conservative Christian route is because it seems like as long as you're on one side of the thing, you're allowed to have any thought, any failing. This is totally another topic, , but if you have any other thought, you're not allowed. But I'm like, wait, I'm saying you're fine. Do what you want. Why can't I say what I think? And you guys hate me? And I think it, it is because it speak because to us, it. Or not attacking our identity. We are women in Christ. Like we know who we are and God is love and honestly like what is love? But God, I don't always feel like I love my husband. I don't always feel like I love my kids. I don't always feel like I love my friends. I work at it because I'm the sinful and broken. And I, and I spec. I know I struggle with those. There's therapy for that, but whatever. But my point, I have to know in my core, I know that God is love, okay? So we're not, swayed by that opinion. We're like, oh, okay. If you wanna do that, fine. But what makes me angry is on that side, they're, because they're feel, they feel whoever they is, that we are attacking their identity. I guess we are not allowed to have an opinion or where's that coming from, that. That our, you know, why can't other people feel a different way? I don't know. I'm all kinds of confused today. It's just because it is confusing. It's like, why? We're not saying we hate you. We're just saying this is what we believe. Do what you want. Or maybe that's what I'm saying. Maybe other people are not I don't know.
Amy:Jordan Peterson has a ton of content around gender, ideology and whether or not our identity is formed in culture or whether or not it's inherent and biological and all this stuff. So there's a, I think there's a lot of really good resources I can link about understanding that. But basically what science tells us is that gender, I mean, we know gender's, biological, but, okay, two, two thoughts. Two thoughts on what you were saying, Nikki. One is people like to think that they're gender. Is totally from within them. Now we know gender's biological, but their gendered identity is, or their identity in general is completely siloed. There's this idea that I. Am subjective only to myself and I can be whoever I want to be. But the way we work socially is the way people respond to us. The way people respond to us helps form our identity. And that's just a fact. So your identity's formed in community fact. That's a scientific fact. Our identities are formed in community and of course there's God's identity and there's those that, that stuff too, but the way people respond to you. So if I'm a woman, And people see that I'm a woman because I have boobs and I, right, okay. Then they're going to respond to me a certain way. If I'm a man, you can see that I'm a man, you're going to respond to me a certain way. And he talks a lot about like, what happens if I. Am clearly a woman, but I'm trying to pretend I'm a man. People don't even know how to respond to you, and the way people react and engage with you actually helps form your identity. So you can't just subjectively personally, just decide you're something. You can't just say you're a lion and then go tell people you're a lion because people.. See, you're not a lion and they're not going to respond to you like you're a lion
Candace:Nope.
Amy:that's not your identity. And then what happens is, because people are super, super, repressed emotionally, it's like their two year old. So responding to the other thing you mentioned, Nikki, about you know, people get so mad when you like, don't say or do the thing you want them to do, especially related to trans and gender identity. It's because they're so emotionally repressed and so, They're so young in their emotional development that they're actually responding like a toddler. Very literally. They have fits and they get very angry and they take things personally because they're so emotionally. Young. And so there's a lot of science around it. There's a lot of like psych psychology around it. But it's true. People respond as if they're toddlers and then they're really offended because you didn't say they or them or whatever it is. You were supposed to say
Candace:Hmm.
Amy:But anyway, it's very interesting. I'll link some stuff,
Nikki:That's another talk for another day. Do you guys use the, use the appropriate, uh, . I, I do, but that's another talk for another day.
Amy:Yeah, that actually would be an interesting one.
Candace:I think we could probably talk about all of this for a long time. There's cuz it's so big, it's so
Nikki:so much I know.
Amy:I'm gonna reroute us a tiny bit,
Candace:Yes.
Nikki:Please do
Amy:I don't think, this has been a gr interesting conversation, so I think Yeah, we can, we can talk about whatever we wanna talk about. It's our podcast. You guys may have l listened to the Allie Stuckey Planned Parenthood interview. Allie Stuckey, as we've mentioned her probably before, she's one of our favorites and she interviews this woman who was in Planned Parenthood for like 30 years or something, a long time, and she finally came out of it and now she has her own like thing, or a ministry I guess. Yeah, cuz she, she came to know Christ, but. She talks a lot about what is consent, what's the consent framework around sex, and she talks a lot about, comprehensive sex education because she had to go into classrooms all for many, many, many years and run the comprehensive sex ed program that's in public schools. When I think of comprehensive sex ed, I think like it's the opposite. Opposite of the abstinence model, right? So some places just teach don't have sex. But broadly in America, in public schools, we teach, okay, if you're gonna have sex, here's how to do it safely. So I have might have opinions about whether or not we should be teaching abstinence or not, but in my mind, comprehensive sex ed is. you know, they teach them about condoms and whatever. Like it doesn't seem that horrible or that, especially if you're judging someone who's not a Christian. Like if this is what you're gonna teach, cuz you're not a Christian, you don't believe it in abstinence, that's fine, that's great. But what she actually revealed is that Planned Parenthood has a ton of sexualized elements to their training. Do you guys remember any of this?
Candace:no, I had, I did not
Nikki:I
Candace:to this.
Amy:One of the things she said that was shocking to me is, for instance, this is just an example of the kinds of things they're teaching them. Okay? So they're teaching the girls. You need to make sure the boy wears a condom. So, , in order to make sure he wears a condom, you can make that pleasurable for him. And then they will act out and give examples of erotic ways you can p help a boy put a condom on. So it's like literally sexualizing them. It's not just, here's a condom and here's how to use it on a banana. It's like, here's what you can say. Here's the noises you can make, here's how you can do this. So it feels good for them to put on. Okay. Teaching this to like 13 year olds. So there, she also told a story about one time she was in the class and she was starting to like really come. Head to head with her beliefs being different than Planned Parenthoods and she was in this class full of these young kids, like I wanna say maybe eighth or ninth graders. And this girl asked a question. This girl said if, if I'm performing an act on a boy and I don't like how that feels when he comes in me, or comes in my mouth like, what can I do to make to enjoy that better That was the question from like this little girl and she turns around and she says it. What I hear you saying is you don't like it. She said, yeah, I don't like it. She said, you know, you don't have to do that. And all the kids were like, jaw dropped. They all looked at her and she said, kids, you know you don't have to have sex. Right. and all these kids started to get really excited and they start, they actually in this class started to plan what they were gonna do together and hang out afterwards that did not involve sex . And she realized just how damaging comprehensive sex had been and how damaging their, their environment was, that these kids thought that they had to be having sex because they're told they're supposed to be having sex. Anyway, super good podcast, but I don't know, like, have you guys ever looked into comprehensive. sex ed. Have you let your kids take it
Candace:Uh, yes. I always read through the curriculum every year and I always talk to the kids about it and it, it hasn't been anything like that in ours. Um, but I don't know if it's different county by county. It probably depends on the teacher. I don't know.
Amy:Yeah. Well this is from Planned Parenthood, not Planned Parenthood doesn't do all sex ed.
Candace:Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, if anything, it sounds to me like the, the sex ed that's taught in our schools, uh, is a little, um, . It's definitely very scientific. And it's not super thorough , so I do a lot of teaching at home when the questions arise.
Amy:I think it's more that you read through the curriculum. Yeah. Actually, what I think is interesting about the whole comprehensive sex ed conversation, especially this one posed by this woman, is that kids are kids, and then you come into comprehensive sex ed. and you're like, I think like the first thing you ever teach them in their curriculum is like all the fluids that you could pass between each other, and so. she said like from, it's like from minute one, it's assumed that you're going to be having sex and, and therefore it's sort of expected. It's like these kids are sitting there wide-eyed waiting to know what's now expected of them, and then they're taught exactly what's expected of them. And that is, that's part what's, what's so damaging, right? Like as opposed to, you know, here's understanding the biology of sex and it's like this. I don't know. I mean, can you imagine like having your wide-eyed child sitting there and then suddenly they're being told by an adult what to expect? So they're like, okay, I guess this is expected of me. I'm supposed to be like swapping fluids, you know, which I don't know,
Candace:Yeah, I
Amy:it's just the wrong presupposition kind
Candace:yeah, and I, I mean, I hate to say, I also think a lot of what kids learn. About identity and maybe a little bit of sexualization also is home, you know? So like what is their home life? I know that my kids have sex education at school, and like I said, I always try to read the curriculum and, and go through it all before they do. But I, me and my husband decided we, we wanna make sure we're the first ones to discuss it with them. So we give them the basics before it's even introduced in school. I mean, and a lot of, you know, cuz the kids are seeing a lot of stuff, hearing a lot of stuff, it's. It's being introduced so young now, which is really upsetting. But we usually shoot for fifth grade because honestly, , it's gotta, it needs to happen, I would say by fifth grade. A lot of those kids are saying and doing inappropriate things by that age anyways, which is really upsetting.
Amy:that sounds about the age that my mom read.
Candace:It's just sad. Like Nikki said, I wish our kids could be kids longer.
Amy:other thing that I, I wanted to mention, which I think I heard from this podcast too, but it feels like an important thing as a conservative Christian mom to be aware of is the consent framework. So we all know the consent framework and sex. You have to consent. in order to have sex. But the problem with the consent framework, which I had never really understood until now, which I'm gonna start kind of dive into a little bit for myself, is that when you teach your children that they need to consent, the question becomes why would you teach a child to consent ever at. For any reason. Again, it's like this really weird presupposition, So like Planned Parenthood, they will teach little ki girls that come in, which they do have little girls coming in who are the, helping get condoms and things. But that's a whole nother topic, I guess. I don't know. It it, it feels like this is one big topic today, but ,but like, they're teaching these little kids, these little girls two like. you need to make sure that you consent in order for that to be okay. Like why? Who in their right minds teaching like an 11 year old that they little girl that, that she needs to be consenting to anything? What I teach my children is no. What you say is no right. Because that's the only thing you can tell a child who's too young to be cognitively consenting to sex. You only ever teach them to say no. So it's this really weird like, again, our culture. Has this framework, this consent framework that is actually really sick if you take any time to think about it and is not something you would do with your own kids, you know?
Candace:no.
Amy:So I don't know. I just think really like to summon it up. There's a lot happening in our culture and there's a lot that we're. We could very easily miss or take for granted or sort of let into our home or let hap happen at school or whatever. Or let our kids engage in a target when they go buy chess binders from tomboy X Cuz, or Walmart. You know, like these things are, are available at a rate that has never been before.
Candace:Yeah.
Amy:And so as moms we just have to be conscious and aware and. and decide where our boundaries are. I guess
Candace:Yeah. I mean, I think we all know this. We just have to be vigilant, and and for, for everything, you know, sexualization, but just everything. We're in a.. We're in a sinful world and we have to be vigilant in all of our decisions, especially pertaining our kids
Amy:Yeah. Well, we appreciate you guys coming along with us. Obviously this was a very like clumsy conversation, but I'm kind of fine with it because we never said we were experts about anything. We just said we were conservative. Christian moms So here you are joining at the table our conversation about all this crazy stuff.
Candace:Yes. you're gonna love us.
Amy:gonna love us See you guys.