So I'm talking to a pre-teen, just-getting-ready-to-enter-the-world-of-lust-filled-teenagers kid who goes to a private religious school where sex-ed is banned (because teaching kids about reproduction and STDs might make them want to run out and have sex immediately). The news was on in the background, and the reporter was talking about AIDS.

KID: I'm an American, so I can't get AIDS.

ME: Are you serious?

KID: Yeah, it's true.

ME: What! Who told you that?

KID: At school they said that people in Africa get AIDS, and my mom told me that it's because they're a third-world country. America's a rich country, so Americans can't get it.

ME: Well, how do you think people in Africa get AIDS?

KID: They get it from the water and bugs and drugs and stuff.

ME: Um, I don't think they're right. Doctors say that you get AIDS if bodily fluids, like blood and stuff, from somebody infected with HIV get into your body.

KID: You mean like from a blood transfusion?

ME: Yes, or if you share needles with somebody who has HIV, like if you do drugs, or if you have sex with somebody who has HIV.

KID: You can get AIDS from having sex?!

ME: Yup, you can get lots of diseases from having sex. That's why you have to be careful about who you have sex with, make sure you use condoms, get tested for diseases at least every year--

KID: You can get diseases from having sex?!

ME: Yup.

KID: What's a condom?

Labels: Things that Annoy Me