Pregnancy Pact ~ What utter stupidity!

[Lisa]

I am absolutely blown away at the news of a bunch of teenagers making a "pact" to get pregnant together and raise their children together. WTF are they thinking? Is this just another example of us going wrong with raising our children? Do you all remember when you were a kid how absolutely terrified you were that you "might" get pregnant and how it was such a big deal when someone did? Now a days there are day cares in high schools for crying out loud!

This just floor me!

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[MBuzzy]

I'm completely speechless. How has this become so glamorized that kids would think this is a good idea. Do they have no sense of responsibility?

 

[Drac]

Absolute and total stupidity...

 

[Tez3]

I can imagine that while the girls may have made a pact they certainly didn't tell the chaps involved who I imagine are probably have some nervous thoughts right now! I heard on the news that the fathers are being tracked down and as the gilrs are underage ( not sure what underage is there though, ours is 16) there could be some arrests. I think too if they aren't arrested they certainly will be required to pay for the babies upkeep etc or perhaps as well as being arrested. It mentioned on the news that some of the fathers are thought to be in their 20s.
I remember being at school and a girl in our year getting pregnant at 16, that was amazing to us as we didn't even know anyone who had sex yet! That was something you did when you were 'grown up', at 16 we didn't consider ourselves grown up at all. Although that was in the days where girls left school, got a little job (though they could go into teaching or nursing) then got married and had a family..in that order, we had a teacher who pushed us to go for careers, proper careers. She didn't see why we couldn't become engineers,doctors, surveyors or anything we wanted to be. Being a single mother was never an option!

 

[Drac]

Please tell me that the soon to be born all have different Fathers...

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Didn't I just issue an executive order banning any further human breeding a couple threads ago?

Oh yeah. That's right. Only slightly less enforceable than Prohibition.

Somebody better get something through Congress and at least make an attempt though because the situation is becoming desperate.

 

[Twin Fist]

this is what happens when schools remove ethics and morality from the lesson plans and people stop going to church.

And i only say church because that is where, historically, most people got thier "moral baseline" from.

This is what happens when we remove the concept of shame from society

 

[tellner]

I didn't say it made sense in the long term with an adult's eye to lifetime economic stability.

The economists and demographers have spent years looking at how people act in or against their self interest. The results are so well established that that they don't really require any further defense. The main predictors for a girl becoming pregnant before she reaches twenty one are well known. The most important ones are education, age at which her older sisters had their first child and income levels among her peers' families, particularly the adult women in those families. This town hits all of the buttons - a depressed blue collar town whose main source of income has disappeared and a high teen pregnancy rate.

Going to Church? Puh-leaze. If anything it's the other way around. The areas of the country that have the highest teen pregnancy and out of wedlock birth rates and the highest divorce rates are precisely the ones that have the highest church affiliation and attendance. Religion doesn't prevent this sort of thing. Fundamentalism is one of the main causes.

The fundies are against advanced education. The teach that women's highest aspiration is to crank out babies, lots and lots of babies. Cf. the "Full Quiver" nonsense and the stated position of the fundamentalist, evangelical, catholic, wahabite and orthodox jewish movements. They are all against any limit to family size and even oppose factual knowledge about basic human biology. Nope. Don't look to them for help on this one or anything else where reality smacks up against dogma.

If some of the self-righteous here had read a little further in this and related articles they would have seen the kicker. The girls were committed to raising their children together and having babies because the babies would love them. That's the other big one for girls who get pregnant by design. It speaks to some serious emotional voids in their lives. See Chris Rock's "Keep Your Daughter Off the Pole".

Bottom line? These girls don't see any reason to delay having children. They don't have any reason to believe that they have better prospects. And they believe they will get something out of it that they don't have in their present lives. It's a damned shame. Some of them have a shot at something better. And they really don't understand what they're letting themselves in for. But it's not "stupidity". It's despair and their perception that they don't have any alternatives

 

[arnisador]

Remember, these people are ahead in the evolutionary race by breeding more than the rest of us ("early and often"). They're winning.

 

[Kacey]

Remember, these people are ahead in the evolutionary race by breeding more than the rest of us ("early and often"). They're winning.

Sad, but true.

 

[Marginal]

This is exactly what the "culture of life" movement was designed to encourage.

 

[MJS]

I am absolutely blown away at the news of a bunch of teenagers making a "pact" to get pregnant together and raise their children together. WTF are they thinking? Is this just another example of us going wrong with raising our children? Do you all remember when you were a kid how absolutely terrified you were that you "might" get pregnant and how it was such a big deal when someone did? Now a days there are day cares in high schools for crying out loud!

This just floor me!

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The first step, IMHO, is proper education. We've had discusions on teens and sex on here before..my views stay the same. Kids are going to have sex. The more someone tries to make it sound bad, or that there're some secrets, the more its going to stir their curiosity. Now, before someone misunderstands and thinks I condone teen sex and pregnancy, let me say, that I do not. I really cringe when I am out and see a 16yo pushing a carraige and no father around. Yet another child that I'm paying for, as well as the rest of us.

My point is, if they're educated, then perhaps, if they do have sex, at least we can hope that they're using protection.

Now, as for this case....these girls should have their *** whacked a few times and some common sense drilled in. They're obviously young, are not thinking and have no clue what raising a child involves. They think its fun and games, but their life will change faster than they can imagine.

 

[tellner]

Now, as for this case....these girls should have their *** whacked a few times and some common sense drilled in. They're obviously young, are not thinking and have no clue what raising a child involves.

There were advantages in families where girls grew up taking care of their siblings and cousins. All the romantic notions go right out the window.

 

[MJS]

There were advantages in families where girls grew up taking care of their siblings and cousins. All the romantic notions go right out the window.

LOL, yes, I can imagine.

 

[Twin Fist]

MJS,
teen pregnancy was rare when I was in HS just 24 years ago.

The schools have been doing it your way since then, it isnt helping. Teen pregnancy is more common now than it was. I know this because now high schools have friggen dare care centers in them......

The problem is, all the kids hear is "it's ok to have sex" and being kids they figure it wont happen to them.so they dont use condoms.....

maybe if they heard "it is NOT ok to have sex, it is bad thing to do, you can catch diseases and/or get pregnant and ruin your life, or DIE, so DONT DO IT"

when did the parents of america decide that it was ok to surrender and just let kids do what they want? I just raised a teen ager female, so I know of what I speak. We simply didnt let it happen and let her know in NO uncertain terms what would happen to her. She was 18 before she was sexually active. Because we simply put some effort into raising her right.

if they are raised right, they just might NOT have sex. When did parents just stop trying?

 

[MJS]

MJS,
teen pregnancy was rare when I was in HS just 24 years ago.

I graduated in 1991. During my 4 yrs, there were no girls in my class that were pregnant. Today on the other hand, I'd be more inclined to say that probably has changed.

The schools have been doing it your way since then, it isnt helping. Teen pregnancy is more common now than it was. I know this because now high schools have friggen dare care centers in them......

Agreed.

The problem is, all the kids hear is "it's ok to have sex" and being kids they figure it wont happen to them.so they dont use condoms.....

maybe if they heard "it is NOT ok to have sex, it is bad thing to do, you can catch diseases and/or get pregnant and ruin your life, or DIE, so DONT DO IT"

Well, there are quite a few ads on tv that talk about safe sex, condoms, disease, etc. Problem is, it needs to be enforced not only by tv, but by parents as well.

when did the parents of america decide that it was ok to surrender and just let kids do what they want? I just raised a teen ager female, so I know of what I speak. We simply didnt let it happen and let her know in NO uncertain terms what would happen to her. She was 18 before she was sexually active. Because we simply put some effort into raising her right.

Like I said, alot of it comes down to how the person is raised.

if they are raised right, they just might NOT have sex. When did parents just stop trying?

I don't think making it bad is the answer. Sex in and of itself is not bad. But, when proper education is not a part of the raising of kids, that is what makes it bad. If we stop and think about it, its really not the job of the schools or tv ads to educated kids, although that does play a role. The primary job is the parents. IMHO, in this case of these girls and their 'pact' the parents are failing at their job.

 

[Twin Fist]

I agree, but i figure it this way, then the parents and the schools are giving the same message, it works a lot better

 

[MJS]

I agree, but i figure it this way, then the parents and the schools are giving the same message, it works a lot better

I think we're on the same page more than it appears. IMHO, the primary job is that of the parents. If the school can give more input via sex ed., then thats even more re-enforcement.

 

[Sukerkin]

It does have to be factored in also that teens now are much more bombarded with images and ideas of sex and sexuality than those of my generation.

Almost everything in advertising alone, for example, seems targeted on sexual attractiveness and rejection of authority. Broadcast morality is permissive and 'role models' (tho' I choke on the term) are promiscuous, their sex lives fodder for the media mill.

It's no wonder, therefore, that those who are growing up in such an atmoshpere are curious and experimental earlier than we were - especially when discipline of them is legally prevented.

If we want to have a prayer of salvaging our societies, such that we may have some stability in our old age, these trends have to be reversed.

Otherwise ... selfish dystopia here we come.

 

[Marginal]

It's no wonder, therefore, that those who are growing up in such an atmoshpere are curious and experiemntal earlier than we were - especially when discipline of them is legally prevented.

Better yet, when birth control is never mentioned and abstinence only is taught in schools. That way such experimentation results in pregnancy more often.