Tonight I was scanning twitter and read something that made me literally sick. While we could debate all day about the morning after pill, for some reason, that number is what caused my stomach to turn. Fifteen. Fifteen. Fifteen and up…..

My only thought was “my heavens.” I’ve got little girls. Little girls that will be 15 in 5 and 7 years. Five years is the length of a car loan. Fifteen years is the length of a mortgage. My son will be 13 in October. 2 years from 15. We talk about sports. We talk about his school. We laugh at AFV and quote song lyrics. We don’t talk about how he could be a father in 2 1/2 years. The act that could make that happen seems like it shouldn’t even be on his radar.

Fifteen

Did you know you have to be sixteen to do the following – get a drivers license, get legally married, join a trade union, buy premium bonds, pilot a glider and buy a lottery ticket (source). You are not legally able to do these things until you’re a year older than fifteen. You can’t get a tattoo, buy tobacco, get a piercing, buy spray paint, get a Sams club membership or be on Jerry Springer until you’re 18 (source). I’m not great at math, but I think that’s 3 years older than 15.

Taylor Swift once wrote a heart breaking song about the awkward age of fifteen. Interestingly enough, it included lyrics that told the story of her best friend giving “everything she had to a boy that changed his mind…and we both cried.” Am I naive? Is fifteen that risque now? Is it just lyrics in a song or is this happening at an alarming rate? Is it an age that can’t drive, buy a lottery ticket or tobacco, but they can take the “morning after pill” without a prescription?

If so, I’m not ready for fifteen…and my girls sure as heck aren’t.

Have we reached the end of innocence? Have we gone off the rails? Is fifteen not about braces, pimples, teen magazines and concerts? God help us. Literally. God help us. We’ve lost or way. We’ve lost the innocence and apparently a pill is all we need to get it back.

Maybe the best thing Taylor sings in her song “fifteen” are these words….

I didn’t know who I was supposed to be at fifteen

The FDA and those in the position to make these decisions for our kids think you do Taylor. Heaven help us.

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