So abstinence education doesn’t work — even Bristol Palin admitted that. Teenagers need realistic, accurate information about sex and pregnancy. It simply makes sense that teenagers get that kind of information as part of an overall biology/health education program in school, so that what is taught is both correct and consistent. The alternative is to have kids learn about sex on the playground or, even worse, from potential (hopeful?) lovers. That’s where ideas like “you can’t get pregnant the first time” and “if you love me, you’ll let me” come from. So, yes, sex education is a good thing. But should it really come from a talking cow?
According to Jodie Cairns and Zac Walker, the answer is a big beefy no. Especially not from a talking cow that sings about A-B-C’s and 1-2-3’s and is meant for infants. And yet, their 4-month-old son Ethan has just such a cow, a present from his grandmother. The cow is supposed to sing “I’m a cow come play with me / Learning colors and shapes, yippee! / A,B,C and 1,2,3 / We’ll have so much fun, you’ll see,” but the couple is convinced that it sings “learning colors and sex” instead. “We listened to it again and again and thought ‘Oh my God’,” said Miss Cairns. “It’s shocking – what if my boy had been a lot older? What would they say about us as parents.”
The Edinburgh Evening News has posted a recording of the toy and, I’ll have to admit, it could be interpreted as saying “sex” instead of “shapes”. Sometimes, though, you get what you pay for. “When I bought it, it was a bargain because it was half-price at £6.47,” said Ethan’s grandma, Beverley Walker. They have since taken the cow away.
I suppose one could see this as a problem but the way I see it, the annoying songs would have driven everyone mad long before the kid was old enough to know the word “sex”. Even for a toddler, a simple “the cow said shapes, but he’s got a bovine accent” would likely suffice to ward off any dreaded conversations. What do you think? Would you let the kid keep the toy or would you take it away?
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