Time we faced up to teenage sex

Abortion rates are rising among young teenagers...

schools are offering sex clinics... more teenagers are having underage sex...

So why not let them get on with it?

After all, in one of the world's greatest love stories, Juliet was only 13, Romeo not much older. True it didn't exactly have a happy ending, but we certainly take them seriously.

Until fairly recent times in many cultures, the age for marriage was the same as the age of sexual maturity. Which makes sort of sense. When teenagers can think of nothing else but love and sex, why try and distract them? Especially with something as unappealing as GCSEs. Bit of a poor second really.

All their hormones are telling them to do one thing and society is telling them no. Maybe there's something to be said for not fighting it. Let the kids do what comes naturally and build society round that - instead of trying to fit adolescent hormones into a nice tidy pattern.

Sex is a game for grown-ups, but seeing what sort of chaos it causes us, who's to say that teenagers would be any worse?

And yes, we want to protect their childhood, prolong it as long as possible, but maybe that's already too late. If they've discovered the joy of sex, you're hardly likely to keep them happy with train sets and hopscotch, are you? Maybe they should realise that sex involves consequences and responsibilities and face up to them sooner rather than later.

After all, if most people had their babies while in their teens, then there'd be all sorts of grannies, great grannies and even great great grannies around to help out, give advice, time and support.

Once the children are grown up, mothers will still be young - but presumably more mature and able to crack on with their lives, careers and ambitions with a bit more purpose and less distraction.

Now we spend an awful lot of effort trying to prevent children from becoming parents while young. And then we have the growing problems of older mothers and infertility. Not to mention the lack of grandparents.

For if the children of 40-something first time mothers wait as long to have babies, then women will be in their 80s before they're first time grannies.

Mother Nature gave teenagers energy, hormones and an overpowering interest in sex. She must have known what she was doing.

So who are we to think we know better?

AN American company is marketing a cherry-flavoured pill specifically for children that does nothing.

Absolutely nothing. The idea is that you just tell your children it will make them better, and it will. A magic placebo.

But who needs it?

Everyone knows that mums can already kiss most things better. Failing that they can produce all sorts of other miracle cures. I must have been nearly in my teens before I realised that my mum's "magic drink" that fixed nearly everything was, in fact, just warm orange squash with a dash of lemon.

But it worked...

REMEMBER two weeks ago I told you enviously about the happy lady pedalling serenely around Cockerton in Darlington, her bike basket decorated with ribbons and a Just Retired sign? Well we now know that she is Pauline Adamson who for 35 years has cycled along Carmel Road to her job in Elm Ridge Gardens flower shop.

"My colleagues gave me a wonderful send-off, including a thoughtful retirement present, a visit to Chelsea flower show and the RHS gardens at Wisley, plus decorating my bicycle," she says. "I kept the decorations on for quite a few days because so many people know me just from seeing my cycling every day."

Pauline is enjoying her retirement so far and says, consolingly: "One day your turn will come."

THE French have had to impose a drinking ban in the park surrounding the Eiffel Tower, because it has become a mecca for binge drinkers.

Last weekend as students celebrated the end of exams, there was a pitched battle between town and gown and police had to use tear gas to break it up.

It might be sort of reassuring that it's not just the Brits who have problems with "le binge drinking". Or, if even the French are out of control, there might be no hope for anyone.

But next time anyone wishes that our youngsters could be more like their continental contemporaries, maybe we had better be careful what we wish for...

ACCORDING to new Department of Health statistics, some of the country's slimmest fittest children are in Hambleton, North Yorkshire.

Meanwhile, next door Ryedale - a very similar rural area - features as one of the worst local authority areas with nearly three times as many obese children.

The two councils meet each other along the edges of the North Yorkshire Moors.

For there to be such a huge difference between them means there must be something very strange in the air by Sutton Bank.

She won, didn't she?

MUCH mockery in yesterday's papers of Ukrainian-born British tennis star Elena Baltacha who burst into tears on getting into the second round at Wimbledon.

Look, she kept coming back from being down, she has a chronic illness, has had a tricky few years. And she won!

It could be the closest we get to a British Wimbledon victory. Elena, pictured left, was entitled to make the most of it.

It might, after all, be her last chance to celebrate...

Brief encounter

SO now David Beckham, honed and toned, oiled and tanned, is the latest footballer to make the eyes boggle by posing in his well-filled briefs and nothing more, not even a smile. Not that anyone's looking at his face...

Gosh, it's a long way from the days when Danny Blanchflower could advertise nothing sexier than Shredded Wheat.

Backchat

More mature, more reliable

Dear Sharon,

THERE are plenty of people who would love to work into their 70s if only there were jobs for them. My late husband was made redundant at the age of 55 and never found another proper job even though he was a time-served fitter.

He kept himself busy doing odd jobs for family and friends but it wasn't the same.

I worked as a part-time secretary until I was 65. During that time I watched young girls start in the office, get trained up, then leave, either for better jobs or to start a family.

Then we would have to start all over again, get more new people and train them up. When I left, I was replaced by a lady in her early fifties, who is still there five years later, unlike most of the younger staff.

There are many advantages to employing older workers, if only employers would realise that we are not all stuck in our ways and are often more reliable as well.

Barbara Hamden (by email).

Dear Sharon,

I LOVED the story of Snow White and the Twenty Four Other Snow Whites and think it was a very clever teacher who thought of it. I am already planning for our nativity play this year. I think it could have ten Virgin Marys, ten Josephs, and ten Angel Gabriels.

It would certainly solve a lot of problems!

Cheryl Anderson, Darlington.