Pregnant @ 16

It seems I've been posting in the Miscellaneous topic lately, more than any other forum. Perhaps I've been more observant lately about goings-on in the real world since I left the news desk.

So today I'm waiting at a bus stop and what do I see? I see a girl, she's about sixteen, and she's tending to her infant. But I don't think it's at all endearing. You know usually I see a mother bonding with her child and I think it's a wonderful sight. But this time as I watch this young girl, accompanied by two very young men, I wonder how she got herself into that position. I know it was her child because I over heard one of the male juvenilles remark to the girl about the father--just before he bummed a cigarette from another waiting rider.

Well here's what I thought. I thought that this sort of thing was over. I know in the 60's there was this big boom of teenagers having babies, but with all the education about pregnancy since then, I would have thought that the trend would have ended. OK, I realize that this was only one young girl, and honestly, she's was the only young mother I have seen in a long time. But, even so, what would motivate her to have sex, and get pregnant?

Am I wrong in thinking that todays youth--women especially--even the most liberal --are waiting to have sex until they're older, married?
I'm not a card-carrying conservative; I vote democrat in fact, but it worries me to see a young life burdened with the reponsibility of raising a child.

I also had to think what future the child had too. Is society as predjudice about this as I was for that instant? Would any of you advise a girl, say 16, to have a child even though it was so common less than 4 decades ago? How many of us are offspring of a young mother?

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I have been formatted to fit this screen.

r66-The member who always asks WHY?

Yes. Some wait until they are married, some wait till they're older, some don't wait at all.

Teen pregnancies have been decreasing, but many teens still engage in sexual relations. Things are getting better it seems, but progress tends to be slow.

Kong couldn't say what motivated her; it could have been a lot of things, or more likely, a combination of a lot of things. Hormones, curiousity, peer pressure, low self-esteem, etc.

Kong thinks that one of the worst responses people seem to have towards teen pregnancy is disgust. It ends up making the mother and the child pariahs, and that doesn't do them or society any good. Empathy, compassion, and education are probably out best hopes in not only decreasing teen pregnancy, but responding to it when it does occur in the most productive ways.

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Kong's Reviews:
Stuck On You
Bad Santa

I agree with Kong. In my opinion, the biggest reason for the drop in teenage pregnancy is the increase in sexual education.

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One of the biggest myths told is that being intelligent is the absence of the ability to do stupid things.

Lockers and Babies do not mix......



actually, you could stick one in there.

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"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm."
--Winston Churchill

You really think you can stop teenagers from having sex?? Good luck!! Personally, I think better education about the importance of a little thingy called condom should do the trick.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

I'm the father.

Congratulations…. Human Services would like to have a word… or two with you…

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You bastard!!!!!!
Did you at least teach her the lyrics to Papa Don't Preach?

I have a friend that had a baby when she was 16. At the same time her brother [a heroin addict] went to jail, his partner died of an OD of heroin. My friend took their baby and raised both girls alone. The girls are both 15 now and the sweetest, considerate, well behaved girls, who love their Mum and Aunt very much.
My friend is a very special person and mother.

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

You think better education huh? Did you read the last sentence of Kong's post?

Anywas, your confusion is understandable since Kong poorly constructed the sentences you qouted. To answer your question, some teens can be prevented from having sex, but that's not something that Kong considers to be a particularly important or even good goal.


In order to clarify the part that you quote Kong will give footnotes:

"Teen pregnancies have been decreasing, but many teens still engage in sexual relations."

The first part of this sentence, "Teen pregnancies have been decreasing," means that teen pregnancies have been decreasing. That wasn't hard was it? The second part, "...but many teens still engage in seual relations." should have been a seperate sentence placed somewhere else in the post. It was really meant as an answer to r3port3r66's question, "Am I wrong in thinking that todays youth--women especially--even the most liberal --are waiting to have sex until they're older, married?" Unfortunately Kong combined these two thoughts because they are related, but unfortunately their relationship caused confusion on Kong's position because of their combined relationship's relationship to the next sentence!

"Things are getting better it seems, but progress tends to be slow."

This sentence was intended to say that things concerning teen pregnancy are getting better. It wasn't meant to say, as it could be construed, that we are preventing more and more teens from having sex, or that teens are having better sex than they used to.

That should clear everything up.

I mostly agree. I'm of the view that you offer constructive help to the individuals, but offer contempt to the idea itself, if you follow. I might make myself a tad unpopular for saying this, but social stigma is not always a bad thing; it can actually be a very effective means of keeping people out of bad situations. I don't believe we should stop looking down on the type of irresponsibility which generally preceeds a teen pregnancy. But I do agree that we should offer more to those who have fallen short than mere disapproval. Disapproval without the possibility for redemption is more often than not the result of one person's desire to feel superior to another.