"I definitely don't think it's something you should do; it's better to wait. But I can't be judgmental because it's a position I put myself in." --Jamie Lynn Spears, OK! Magazine

In discussing premarital sex with OK! magazine, Britney Spears sister somehow manages to throw in a little humor admist her glaring hypocrisy. I mean, using the word "position" when talking about premarital sex - oh, that's a good one. Kind of like, oops I did it again.

Shame on Jamie Lynn Spears for not just her moral relativism, but her bad behavior. Yes, it is bad behavior to engage in premarital sex when you are just a 16-year-old. There's nothing good about it. And there's nothing good that comes out of not being judgmental with something as serious as sex.

I simply don't understand her attempt at sounding like someone who knows what they're talking about. She can't be judgmental about other 16-year-old "girls" having premarital sex because she herself chose to do so? What kind of nonsense is this? This is like saying you can't talk bad about someone trying to break into your home because there was a time in your life when you wanted to do the same thing to another home owner.

We of course need to look at the parents here. Shame on them with a capital S. Why are they allowing their 16-year-old daughter to date and have premarital sex with a 19-year-old? Sounds like a case of PP. That is, permissive parenting. How much do you want to bet that when Britney and Jamie Lynn were even younger than they are now, they rarely heard the word No?

Herein lies the problem with too many of today's parents and their children who are certainly living like adults way too soon. Anything goes. Immediate gratification even takes too long. There doesn't seem to be anything that spoiled children like this cannot have or cannot do. Premarital sex at 16? Well, why not?
 
Premarital sex amongst children seems to be an entitlement in our culture nowadays. All you have to do is observe the child abuse that goes on in some public school health centers where 11-year-"girls" are written prescriptions for birth control instead of being told: "No, you are not allowed to engage in premarital sex." When did we decide to throw even a hint of morality out the window? We certainly aren't better off for having done so.

If it is culturally acceptable, and acceptable within the home of permissive parents, for 16-year-old girls to have premarital sex, I really wonder where you draw the line. The problem is, there is no line. Again, anything goes. Children who grow up in a perpetually permissive parenting home are headed for a hard fall. After all, if you get everything you want all the time, what is there left to earn, love, appreciate or work towards?

You can't run from the stark reality that we are engaged in a heated cultural war. You have to decide which side you are on. And you have to commit to fighting to the end. Do you want us to return to a culture where children respect their parents and respect themselves? Or do you want to continue to travel down a road where you can't really tell the difference within a permissive parenting home who the children are, and who the parents are. Truth is, they're one and the same. It's absolutely pathetic.

So, where do we go from here? Do we continue to support bad behavior and live a philosophy of: "Well, this is what everyone else does?", or do we finally decide to raise the bar? How unfortunate it is to have to say that raising the bar really means just going back to the basics. Just going back to a state of things where there is a list of things that as a parent you are not going to allow your 16-year-old girls and boys to do. Not ever. Surely, premarital sex ought to be top on that list.

Memo to the entire Spears family and permissive parenting homes around the country: Oops I did it again isn't going to cut it. In fact, if there was any justice in this world 16-year-old Jamie Lynn wouldn't even become yet another unwed mother. Casey Aldrige wouldn't even become yet another 19-year-old unwed father. It would be great to see them decide to have a married couple adopt the child.

Jamie Lynn Spears, a 16-year-old, should now become judgmental about sex. And seriously consider the "position" of adoption.

Tony Zizza is a freelance writer who lives in Atlanta, GA. He writes frequently about popular culture. Reach Zizza via email: tz777@comcast.net.