Me and my girl had to go through this retreat so we could get married in the church. Eight hours of speakers talking about personality types, conflict resolution, parenting styles, and introducing God into your marriage.

The speakers that stuck out in my head the most were a couple that was talking about intimacy in marriage. They described Natural Family Planning and how it's the style of birth control that they use. They said that this form of birth control is more effective than condoms. The best part about them...they swear by this form of birth control...yet they have 8 kids together. What the fuck? LOL.

I know, I know...cool story, bro.

But all I'm saying is that I'm calling shenanigans on Natural Family Planning. Pulling out is still the best way to go!

quiverfull movement bro

I've been through it as well.... totally agree with you. The husband at my retreat was talking about cool and intimate it was to conduct a vaginal exam of his wife.... very creepy.

the pill=GOAT

Haha. Catholics.

Im sure the Duggars believe in this also

The priest told y dad the only form of birth control Catholics can use is the rhythm method.
My dad asked the priest '' Where the hell am I gonna find a band at three in the morning?"

Haha ... natural family planning ...

Most married couples do this anyway. They never have sex ... until the woman wants another brat ...

sherm03 wrote: But all I'm saying is that I'm calling shenanigans on Natural Family Planning.

You should call shenanigans on the whole "God-church-thing" too, just take the pill.

Tigerfan00 wrote: Im sure the Duggars believe in this also

They do quiverfull...

Which is they actively try to have as many children as they can...

It's close though

at my church we had the option to either do a retreat or go to a sponsors house a few times and talk stuff out, well we decided to go to the sponsors house, and it was pretty decent we drank beers, and just talked, it was a very relaxed atmosphere

Goldenboy26 wrote: at my church we had the option to either do a retreat or go to a sponsors house a few times and talk stuff out, well we decided to go to the sponsors house, and it was pretty decent we drank beers, and just talked, it was a very relaxed atmosphere

I wish we had that option. That's what my brother and sister-in-law did when they got married, and actually got to be really good friends with their sponsor couple. Would have been much better than what I sat through today!

UA5straightin2008 wrote: the pill=GOAT

Win. Should be mandatory for girls 18+ who dont wanna get pregnant.

chicago510 wrote:

UA5straightin2008 wrote: the pill=GOAT

Win. Should be mandatory for girls 18+ who dont wanna get pregnant.

Yeah, but you can't trust them to take it. There totally needs to be a pill for guys. Seriously, can't believe the only non permanent birth control guys can use is a condom.

Natural family planning works if you do it right. Most people are too lazy or stupid to do it right. I'd say 95% of the people we know who decided to do "natural family planning" ended up popping out a ton of kids right away. Go figure.

No thanks to the Natural Planning. My first, and only child, was a Natural Planning, or I should say Natural Unplanning. I'm just lucky enough to have my current wife that is on the pill. (and doesn't want kids...42 is too old to start a new family)

There certainly are biological signs which can indicate fertility and planning around them can be relative effective, although I doubt it can be as effective as the pill or condoms. Natural Family Planning can actually help if you want to have a boy or girl.

Also, it's a good thing you went through some type of pre-marital counseling. I'm a licensed minister and I require premarital counseling for all couples that I marry because couples who go through counseling are far less likely to get divorced down the road. They don't have to do the counseling with me. but if they do it's three one-hour sessions. Couldn't image a whole day of premarital counseling.

We also have three different hour-long meetings with our priest, krambman. The first meeting was simply getting to know the priest and for information gathering. Then we took the FOCCUS test, and have to meet with the priest two more times to discuss the results of that test. And honestly, the day long retreat today was better than the other option of a two-day, overnight retreat (where we would have to pay for our own hotel room).

In all honesty, I really don't mind the pre-marital counseling. It really has helped me and my fiancee communicate better and understand a little bit more about what married life is going to be like.

But that session on natural family planning was just too over the top for me today.

sherm03 wrote: We also have three different hour-long meetings with our priest, krambman. The first meeting was simply getting to know the priest and for information gathering. Then we took the FOCCUS test, and have to meet with the priest two more times to discuss the results of that test. And honestly, the day long retreat today was better than the other option of a two-day, overnight retreat (where we would have to pay for our own hotel room).

In all honesty, I really don't mind the pre-marital counseling. It really has helped me and my fiancee communicate better and understand a little bit more about what married life is going to be like.

But that session on natural family planning was just too over the top for me today.

I don't use FOCCUS, but what I use is similar. The first session is just them taking a test and the next two are going over and discussing the results. The best thing about premarital counseling is that it often gets couples to discuss things that may become potential issues during marriage that they would never discuss otherwise. Even for couples that cohabitate before marriage, there are a lot of things that change once they are married because of the increased level of commitment. My dad is a pastor and he once had a couple where the man expected the women to quit her job and be a homemaker once they were married and she wanted to keep working. It was a month before their wedding when they were going through counseling and had never talked about it before. Had they gotten married with different expectations of their roles in their marriage, it easily could have led to divorce.

As far as the whole NFP thing, I'd never tell people that this is the only form of birth control you should use, but I think it's important to point it out and talk about it because there are those who don't believe in artificial birth control or those who simply do not like artificial birth control for whatever reason.

PREPARE/ENRICH, Krambman? That's what Mrs. FFT uses when she does pre-marital counseling. For many couples, it's very helpful and lays the foundation for some of the big changes that happen.

maybe you should go to another church where they don't make you deal w/ the BS