Is NOTHING sacred anymore?

Today I make my case for mandating that persons looking to be parents be required to take classes, pass an exam and be licensed before having children.

First let me say this: I'm all about schools starting to teach sex ed to kids when they're in fifth or sixth grade. . . in my opinion, starting that young will HELP them avoid making really bad decisions. But there's a BIG difference between sex ed and showing the kid a LIVE SEX SHOW.

And that's exactly what 36-year-old Rebecca Arnold of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, did. A few years back, she and her boyfriend, 33-year-old David Prata, repeatedly had sexual relations in front of her NINE-YEAR-OLD daughter.

Rebecca told investigators, quote, "We don't believe in hiding anything. We wanted to prepare her so she would know how."

Finally, in December of 2004, the girl's teacher heard her talking about the sex and called a child abuse hotline. They contacted the police, who arrested Rebecca and David for felony child neglect.

That's the charge because, according to the police, they, quote, "provided an environment that is lewd and depraved in a manner that makes their home unfit for the child to live in."

Ya think?

Anywho, they're set to go to trial next month; and surprise, surprise - they've entered a plea of NOT GUILTY.

The girl, now age 11, is living with her biological father in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Up next, we have 27-year-old Lori Yeager of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was out with her kids ages 10 and two when she decided to head over to a tanning salon.

Nothing wrong with that. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?

Here is where it goes awry. According to Lieutenant Jeff Johnston of the Sheboygan police, quote, "She was going on vacation and apparently felt that the tanning was a priority."

Apparently they have absolutely NOBODY available to baby-sit in the city of Sheboygan!

Cause Lori went into the tanning salon and left the kids in the car. The temperature outside: 12 degrees. The wind chill index: Minus-two.

A couple of people walking by saw the kids and called the cops. By the time they got there, the kids had been in the car, unattended, without the heat on, for 20 minutes.

They were dressed warmly, but had goose bumps from the cold. Fortunately, they didn't need medical attention.

But if I had my way ..... their mama would.

Lori was arrested and charged with two counts of child neglect; apparently, while the cops were helping her kids, their father got there and started yelling at Lori for leaving them in the car like that. Can we say ..... DYS-FUN-CTIONAL!

And finally, a study that comes from Australia, so we're not sure how much it applies to the women over here but if our women are even HALF as bad as the Australians, then we're STILL in SERIOUS trouble.

According to the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, almost HALF of women say that after they get pregnant, they keep DRINKING ALCOHOL. And they keep on doing it through the breastfeeding period, too.

--20% of expectant mothers say they keep smoking cigarettes DAILY.

--5% say they keep smoking REEFER during their pregnancies . . . and 2% keep doing HARDER drugs.

Believe it or not, the teen mothers and young mothers aren't the problem the biggest perpetrators are the older women who SHOULD know better.

Higher-educated, older, high-income women are most likely to drink during their pregnancies; the researchers say that's probably because those women have spent DECADES getting into a pattern of drinking, so it's harder for them to stop.

In Australia, they're not quite as against pregnant women drinking as we are; there, the government recommends that pregnant women "only" put down seven drinks a week.

I mean what is REALLY going on? I know at least for me - being pregnant was the one time that I wanted to do EVERYTHING right because I realized that it was no longer about me - I had another life to nurture. That same sentiment continues now that I am a mother of two beautiful boys. To senslessly endanger the life of anyone - much less your offspring - baffles me. Damn, is NOTHING sacred anymore?