Cute little Mary is just the kind of girl you have always prayed for. She has most of the qualities you will like in a daughter. Hard work, intelligence, obedience…You have always taught her many things, prepared her a good woman and wife in future. Amongst your lessons, you have made her understand there is “time for everything”. That “everything” includes love. There will come a time when it is absolutely right for her to engage into a sexual relationship. Most preferable, you will even like her first relationship to lead to marriage. You will not like her to lose her virginity before marriage; worst of all have a child out of wedlock.
Mary has been living well up to your expectation. Telling off the guys and men that she is not ready for a sexual relationship yet. For now, she is concerned with just her family and education. She has been very “lucky” until….baammmm!!! Comes Mr. Right, or at least someone she thinks is Mr. Right. She thinks this is the right time. She thinks she is ready for a relationship. Maybe she’s not, maybe she is. You are her mum or Dad. What do you think about this? “No, No, No…” that’s your answer. “She is not ready yet”.
This is very common. Most parents, especially mothers, usually feel threatened when their daughter falls in love for the first time. I am not a mother, so I don’t know exactly how it feels, but to my opinion, they either feel it is not a safe time for the child yet, or that they will just miss her commitment to the family. Let’s try to consider these from a mother’s point of view.
In most cases, the guy will be older. This makes you look at the girl as relatively young and inexperienced. You will bet over your life that the boy is not in for the first time.
- The girl, being inexperienced in sexual affairs (since it is her first time) is bound to be the looser when things go bad. Believe me, a majority of first relationships go bad.
- The girl might be taken away by her first love and become less committed at home. At times, she will abandon house chores to go and spend time with him.
- The boy’s academic and socio-economic background may be completely different from that of the girl. This calls for concern, but most mothers fail to understand that love does not depend on that.
- A mother may be afraid and uncertain about the boy’s moral conduct. Does he drink, smoke or drive recklessly? Does he hang out with gang members?
- I believe there are tons of problems in this domain, but this is all I can really think of as being the main ones.
In some cultures, sexual relationships before marriage are completely out of questions. Girls are expected to walk into their matrimonial homes are virgins. In such cultures, a mother doesn’t worry much about the safety of her child since she knows that anybody coming close is prepared for a wedding. Such cultural practices are so severe that boys are punished for not keeping a marital promise.
They say, “love is blind”, yeah, that’s true. Will you, a mother, try to take away your child’s joy because you feel it is not safe yet? Yes, of course, her safety is your right. But what we fail to understand is that love is so complicated that it is almost impossible to control someone against it. I for one, will recommend a mother to advice her female child, but not wage war upon her if she refuses to abide to her point.
The majority of people in your family believe there is “time for everything”. Yeah, as far as I know, they are right. They wouldn’t love you to start a relationship with thee opposite sex when you are not yet matured (morally, physically or psychologically). Depending on your background or culture, your parents and elder brothers and sisters may not want you to engage in a sexual relationship before the age of 18 or 21. Some parents have very effective ways of making you see things clearly. Some may just be dictators and pass on a memorandum on how things should be. I don’t thing the way they present the subject matters. More important is the subject that is being presented. If you look at things with a clouded judgment, you will never get the right solution.
You have never been in love. This is your first time. You may be acting on your own accord, thinking you are ready, OR it may just be peer pressure, that is from friends or schoolmates. Maybe you just feel it is time to “measure up to others”. Love is a treasure and not just a yardstick to measure you up to others. It is a treasure and has to be valued at such. If you are not yet ready, that doesn’t make you inferior to your mates who are (or have decided to be).
At first, your parents may not want your first love (even when they know you are ready). They may be jealous (Please permit me use this word and don’t give it a negative impression yet) seeing someone coming to take control over what has entirely been theirs for a long time. They may feel that your attention may become divided and you will no longer exercise your full potentials at home. In some cultures, parents maybe concerned with virginity. A lot of respect is attached to it a a parent sees a lot of loss when a female child loses it