Pregnancy Pact

[robbersean]

Read this:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html


How screwed up is that? A pregnancy pact? What the fuck?

Also, Gloucester is about fifteen miles down the shore from where I grew up, and it is not as destitute as this article makes it out to be. Sure, the fishing industry is hurting, but that whole area is loaded with million dollar homes and folks who make six figures plus.

[Ryan]

Six figues plus? Sounds like the perfect place o raise children.

Really though, I almost agree with the statement that movies like "Juno" and "Knocked Up" caused this kind of thinking, coupled with the fact that the school they attend provides services to watch the children. The latter is almost saying "Yeah, whatever, you can keep attending school, we'll watch the brat."

But kids these days, they're so unimaginative. First Britney has a baby, Britney's sister has a baby, then a Canadian chick in some movie has a baby. Babies are the "in thing" suddenly. I'll stick with my Magic: The Gathering cards and no child-support, thank you.

[speedymarie]

Did you see Juno? I don't really think that it shows having a baby as glamorous. The ending is pretty heart-wrenching, when Juno gives up her baby. It certainly doesn't suggest that teen girls should have a baby and keep it. And Knocked Up doesn't suggest that being a single pregnant woman is at all easy.

I think I would agree with the idea that these girls want someone to love them, and they think they can get that from a baby. And maybe their school is making it a little TOO easy to be a teenage mother, and not emphasizing the downsides enough. Lack of sex-ed, difficulty accessing birth control, and maybe a range of other unusual factors can lead to a situation like this.

[Amharclann]

Better sex ed. is the way to go. These children only see the glamour side. If they had to live the difficult side of it they might have a different opinion. Kids need to be shown that the life of a single mother is difficult. Every time we have a hard night with the baby all I can think is how hard it must be for single mothers. Every experience that I have help with, I think about how lonely and difficult it would be to be without a spouse. We don't show teens enough of the difficult stuff. I disagree with the sentiment that having daycare at school encourages teenage pregnancies. It doesn't. What it does is give these children a chance at a life. An education gives them some hope that they can provide for their children.

They had a programme in Ireland where they gave teenage girls a doll for a week. The means to feed the doll was attached to their wrist so they could not leave the doll to anyone else. The doll was programmed to cry randomly and the girls had to do what they could to calm her. They had to take her everywhere they went including school. Beforehand they were interviewed and they all wanted a baby girl cause you could dress her up cute. Afterwards they were interviewed and all said that it was the worst week of their lives and though they would still like to have a baby at some point, they would like to be older and have a partner to help out. Life altering.....and that was just a crying doll. Add stinky diapers, spit up, puke, every one of your clothes getting stained by something the baby ate or did and you can imagine how easily you could deter teen pregnancies.