Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009

Warn your daughters about Levi

Forget the condoms.

Don't worry about birth control prescriptions.

Put the "Great to Wait" videos back on the shelf.

Push aside the tales of high rates of genital herpes and the gory photos of sexually transmitted diseases. Save those for later if necessary.

For now, plop your teenage daughter in a chair at the kitchen table and plug in her laptop. Ask her to google "Levi Johnston" and "pistachio nuts."

Watch with her the video of Johnston in a commercial walking with a bodyguard, being hounded by paparazzi and a voiceover saying, "Now he does it with protection."

Look her in the eye and tell her this: "If you aren't careful, someone like him will be the father of your baby."

Johnston was the almost son-in-law of Sarah Palin. He attended the Republican National Convention last year because he got Palin's daughter Bristol pregnant. He stood on stage with the Palin family. He reportedly was engaged to marry Bristol. Call that politics or a photo op gone bad. That's a different discussion for a different day.

But for your daughter and mine, the image of Johnston as father should forever stand as the No. 1 reason to avoid early sex.

A boy - an immature boy - who knows little about manhood or parenting will help determine the fate of Sarah Palin's grandchild. That's what we should be warning our daughters against. Johnston is one of the most visible, but not the only, examples of bad mate material.

We debate the efficacy of passing out condoms. We talk about the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of abstinence-only programs. We protect our children from Internet porn.

What we don't discuss enough are the grown-up consequences of the grown-up activity that is sex.

We can and should speak to our teenage boys as well. If I were Johnston's father, I'd be more ashamed than proud that he's cashing in his 15 minutes of fame at the expense of someone to whom he might have whispered "I love you so much" a thousand times.

But for today, sit your daughter down, tell her the story of Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston.

Tell her that being a good mother begins long before the first diaper change.

It starts with whom she chooses to have sex.

Note: I will be holding an online chat at noon today about race in the news. Join the conversation at TheSunNews.com.

Bailey's "Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don't Eat Watermelon in Front of White People)" can be purchased at The Sun News or ProudBlackSoutherner.com. He can be reached at ibailey@thesunnews.com.