No one knows the complete answer to the difficult question about petting and sex relations for the adolescent. My attitude is very much the same as that of psychiatrist Dr. John Levy in his book The Happy Family. He says:
Advising adolescents about their sex life is a highly personal and individualized problem. You cannot recommend the same behaviour for all of them indiscriminately. I rather hope that my own daughter will pet or neck, or whatever the proper term may be, preferably with boys she knows well and likes, and only with her contemporaries. Love-making of this type is a healthy preparation for marriage. I hope that she will not have intercourse or end up merely a technical virgin. Quite aside from any moral implications, such a step is risky. If she does have a complete relationship, though, I most earnestly hope that she will know what she is about, that she will not go into an affair because she happens to be tight, or thinks it’s ‘the thing,’ or wants to prove that she can carry it off. These are my hopes. They are based on my observation of the kind of behaviour least likely to cause trouble in our particular social group. But she may order her life quite differently and be none the worse for it. If she is neither afraid of sex nor bamboozled by its glamour, I shall be very content. Note particularly the points Dr. Levy makes, which apply equally well to boys as to girls: (1) Adolescent love-making should be with friends who are approximately the same age. (2) A certain amount of petting and necking is a good thing as a preparation for the fuller, richer love of marriage. (3) If the young person prefers some other way, accept the decision with the hope that it will be a realistic one and will not cause unhappiness.
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