Comment by wat10000

I don’t think it needs to be about what they ought to do. You can tell someone, if you abuse credit cards to buy a bunch of stuff you can’t afford, you’ll end up broke. They can make the “I don’t want to be broke so I won’t do that” connection on their own. Lay out the facts and consequences and you’re all set.

Same with sex. You don’t need to tell them not to get pregnant, or get someone pregnant, in high school. You teach them how to avoid it and what happens if they do it.