STUPID MOM WITH NO EXCUSE IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR ABBY: Here's one for the books on parental stupidity. When my daughter, "Marissa," began to reach her teen years, her father -- in an attempt to be funny -- advised her that she could keep from becoming pregnant by putting an aspirin between her knees and keeping it there.

My stupidity was assuming that sex education and pregnancy prevention were taught in her school. I never broached the subject with her.

Marissa became pregnant at 15. The young man she was seeing told her she couldn't get pregnant in a swimming pool because the chlorine would kill the sperm. Have you heard that before? Needless to say, the inevitable result was a baby.

I love my grandson dearly. God did not make a mistake even though we adults were all dummies in the advice department. Please tell parents, children and adults to educate themselves and learn all the facts and fictions about teen pregnancy and prevention. -- STUPID MOM WITH NO EXCUSE IN NEW JERSEY

The reason sex education isn't taught in schools is because then kids will know how to have sex. Don't teach it and they'll never know how to do it.

Obviously, some kids must google the internets to find out about sex. Or better yet, they take birth control advice from the young men trying to have sex with them. I'm not sure if chlorine really does kill sperm, but my guess is that the chlorine would have to be flowing through your vagina at the time and that it would have to be highly concentrated chlorine.

Logic should have told your daughter that this would never work or people wouldn't waste money on condoms or birth control. They'd simply go out and have movie scene worthy unprotected sex in swimming pools.

Your advice, readers?