I doubt that any parent of a teenager was surprised when new mother Bristol Palin, daughter of the former Alaska Governor, opined that teen abstinence is a worthy goal, but, as a form of birth control, “not realistic at all.”
This photo of our best friends’ oldest daughter really shocked me:
She is not a teenager. In fact, she is 21 years old — just three weeks younger than our #1Son — and a senior in college. But many young adults are far from ready to take on the responsibility of parenthood in their early 20’s.
Fortunately, there were two photos attached to the email I received from her mother.
Perhaps, in addition to providing instruction on birth control methods including, but not limited to abstinence, high schools should consider investing in an “empathy belly” to give students an opportunity to wear it around campus.
Which is what our young friend has been doing in conjunction with her maternity rotation. She is completing her Bachelor of Science degree — in nursing.
6 Comments
Hi Janie, teen pregnancy is one of our worst nightmares for our own kids. These teens think it’s all house play and they have “Mom” to take care of the baby. What they don’t realize is that their lives are never going to be the same again. Love and romance fly out of the window as soon as the baby starts to cry.
I hope you can drop by again at my site. I have something there waiting for you.
Bing (“,)
PinkLady´s most recent post: Giving Back The Love
I was watching a local news story and they were talking to teenage mothers about why they wanted to get pregnant. The vast majority of them wanted something to love. This is so sad because they have no clue what they are in for.
Back in the olden days of the 1970’s when I was in high school a good friend of mine got pregnant. She thought she could handle it and ended up marrying her boy friend. Before I moved to Los Angeles, I went to see her. She was miserable. She told me she didn’t think it was going to be so hard to care for a baby. She felt she gave up everything she wanted to do with her life. The sad part is she got divorced after having two more kids.
There is something missing in their lives that make them want to make this very adult choice.
Teen Pregnancy can be every mom’s worst nightmare. A child is a blessing, but it’s something that should wait a few years more. I just read an email about the 13- year-old father who looks like a little boy. I’m not sure what the future lies for him and his new family but I hope they will make it through.
It is a very good idea for them to wear those bellies around. Something needs to be done to show these young girls that having a baby is serious. Teen pregnancy is on the rise and its so sad.
In England, teen pregnancy is a fact of life. We top the league in Europe, the doctors invent new ways to stop the pregnancies and the papers are full of “broken Britain” stuff. Does this change anything? No. The whole system should change and then slowly in 5-10 years time maybe we’ll see the results. But as of now, the situation may only unfortunately get worse.
Reminds me of the movie Juno. Getting pregnant is difficult as it is. What more if one gets pregnant at a young age. I saw a feature on tv about a nine-year-old kid impregnating a teenager and he does not even know what the term financial is when he was asked if they were prepared for the baby financially… it is so sad and alarming at the same time…