Times have SO changed.

I was talking with a friend about her 27 year old daughter and the girls' recent confession that she had lost her virginity at the age of 12. My friend was mortified to hear this. Not just because 12 is such a young age, that was bad enough, but because the girl couldn't even remember the event. It seems she's had experiences since then that over-shadowed the event. That made my eyebrows raise too!

I'm not niave nor a prude. I know what young people do and have been doing since even I was a teenager. But, I at least remember my first time for heavens sake.

*A memory bubble forms above my head* ...

I was 17. We were in his parents yellowish colored Impala on Signal Hill. "Easy" by The Commodors had been playing on the radio (no, I wasn't easy at all believe me, I put him off for a year and a half) and I remember feeling so much heart-felt emotion that night. I had on a multi-colored blue striped V-neck sweater top that buttoned up the front; I remember this top because he wore "Brute" cologne and I wouldn't wash that top for weeks afterwards forcing my mother to throw it out lol. 32 years later, I can still remember everything that was spoken in that car and every emotion I felt that night. Right or wrong ... I remember it all.

Why? because I was "in love" ... which sadly, young people really aren't so much nowadays (from what I'm hearing) when they choose to give of themselves for the first time.

I won't get into the moral or religious aspect of when a person is supposed to lose their virginity.

People have different beliefs and opinions about that. What concerns me is why it happens the way it does and how it differs so from my generation.

My friends' daughter told her that she did however remember that she felt she was way behind her other friends and was stressing quite a bit over when she would finally catch up and be able to tell of her experience. She also remembered that she was more popular in the school year that followed it seemed, so that gave her the incentive to be even more promiscous.

I felt sorry for my friend and the saddness she felt for her daughter in that ... a moment, that was supposed to be so special regardless of right or wrong or what was to happen in the future, was lost to peer pressure, anxiety and what a lot of parents say is the desensitization of our youth over the past 2-3 decades.

That, is a whole other issue that i'll have to get into some other time, but my friends' story is a sad one nonetheless, which prompted me to call my kids and ask them how much they allow their children to know and the things they teach them about love, feelings and relationships.

I can now see I have my work cut out for me after some of the things I heard ...