Rent is one of my favorite musicals...ever! Everytime I watch it, you can guarantee I will cry and sing very loudly to the songs. It's a classic.

This is a serious subject and nothing to laugh at, least of which by the moms of teen girls who are actually trying to get pregnant. All this goes to show in some of the honest gut reactions that moms gave in two recent posts on the subject. Obviously it's a very real issue that's on a lot of moms' minds lately.

Here's how some moms would react if they found out their teen daughters were trying to get pregnant on purpose:

This is the title of a new parenting book, and it disturbs me to no end. It's true that many tweens and teens don't consider oral sex to be true "sex" and often submit to requests for it as nonchalantly as if asked to pass a bottle of ketchup down the table.

The book -- made into a documentary -- chronicles the sex lives of teen girls. The author, Sharlene Azam, also examines the recent emergence of teenage prostitution in affluent suburbs. Middle class girls as young as 12 are having sex with up to seven men a night, several times a week, so they can go shopping.

A lot of moms in the Connecting With Your Teenager group have given it to their daughters to read. But myfoursonsks, who has four boys, reminded moms not to only blame the boys. Even the book author says that your daughter's best friends may be her biggest enemies when it comes to letting down her moral guard.

As the social climate around homosexuality changes, many gay youth are coming out as early as middle school.

This change has caught parents and educators completely off-guard and most have had to adapt quickly to deal with these teens' decisions to be out early on in the school years.

Major Trouble costume; $40

That model doesn't look like any "tween" I know, but there's no mistaking the target demo of these new Halloween costumes from an e-commerce site named Costumes for Tweens.

MommyMerry7 in the Newcomer's Club said:

What the heck is up with the tween costumes? I thought a tween was 10-12 years old ... these costumes look like hoochie mamas. Who lets their kids wear this? Check out Goldie Locks and Dorothy ..."

Another mom's take: "A pedophile's dream come true."

Photo by AngieMay

A new study suggests that conservatively religious states tend to have the highest rates of teenagers giving birth. Experts say this is because religious communities are more successful in discouraging teens from using contraception that they are in discouraging them from having sex.

So which state has the highest rate of teen births?

A Colorado middle school has banned all jelly bracelets—and it isn't the first school to do so. School officials believe the bracelets indicate participation in "snap games," with each bracelet representing a particular level of sexual activity the wearer is willing to engage in. When a boy "snaps" a bracelet off a girl...well, you get the idea.

Vibrators are becoming more common and less of a stigma among women. Studies show that women who use the little gadgets have healthier and happier sex lives. But what about teens/tweens?

Photo by geminisummerz

Many parents don't want to think about their children engaging in any kind of sexual behavior; however, some sexual expression is really, really normal. For boys and girls alike, most kids masturbate and explore their bodies even when they're as young as two years old. But what's normal sexual behavior and when should we worry?

A new clinical report released by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and titled "The Evaluation of Sexual Behaviors in Children" (Nancy D. Kellogg, MD, and the Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect) can help parents wade through the worry. Odds are, you probably have nothing to worry about.

I'm pretty sure my son was a fifth grade kid when he left for school one day last month, but then he came home a full fledged, um, dude. He told me that he wasn't going to wear striped shirts anymore, and that he was growing his hair long and that juice pouches weren't "cool." Hmmm, could it be? Was my son suddenly becoming interested in the cootie-infested girls he used to tease mercilessly?

My suspicions were confirmed when later he asked me to get him deodorant and mouthwash. Honestly I was kinda thrilled because boys his age really do smell ripe by the end of the day and this was also my big opportunity to get him to improve his oral care habits. I told him if he really wanted a cleaner mouth and fresh breath, he had to do more than just brush his teeth.