One thing I have realized is that some people are completely disillusioned as the people in Glouchester, Mass. who honestly believe their was no pregnancy pact or at least an agreement or a mutual desire between those girls to all get pregnant. I'm a mother I have a three year old and I'm pregnant with my second. So I can tell you the envious stares and comments I received when I pregnant with my first when I was 19-20 years old. If my 17 year old god-sister can say "you're so lucky to be having a baby. I've been trying for years to get pregnant", then what does that tell you about our society and how young girls view pregnancy. Granted Hollywood does glamorize pregnancy through its movies, for instance there's Knocked Up w/ Katherine Heigl and The Back Up Plan w/ Jennifer Lopez. But guess what, as parents it's our jobs to point out the fact that these women are ADULTS, with JOBS, and are completely old enough to decide to become parents. They at 14, 15, 16, 17 are NOT. It's our job to be actual parents, rather than trying to be their friends.
Many parents have the mistaken notion that they need to be their child's friend. No you do NOT. How can they ever take you seriously if your are trying too hard to be their friend, rather than teaching them and discipling them as their mother or father.
Another thing I have noticed is the focus on the girls. Yes they are the ones pregnant, but the didn't get pregnant alone. Boys need to understand, that the moment you lay down and have sex with a girl, you run the risk of getting her pregnant. If you have aspirations for college and goals to be an professional athlete then you need to either practice abstinence (preferably) or at least practice safe sex. Boys need to understand that the babies, these girls are getting pregnant with are their babies too! So stop thinking its "her problem, nobody told her to get pregnant." No its YOUR problem too, you had sex with her! You took that risk for pleasure so now, take responsibility. The same way you would if you got into a car accident or failed a class in school.
Another thing I have noticed, is that many people wait until its too late to address an issue. No, address that issue the first time you have an inkling it could happen or be happening.
Granted we do not want to encourage pre-marital sex however we cannot turn a blind eye to it either. I would rather prepare my teenager than to have to face the consequences of an unplanned teen pregnancy or worse them getting an STD. We need to be sure if there's a chance our children are having sex, start educating them on it, the pros the cons, the implications. Educate them on the consequences. Educate them on the STDs they could contract. That's our jobs as parents, as caregivers, even as professional teachers.
WE owe it to ourselves to prepare teens for what lies beyond high school. There's an entire life to live after that. Eventually many of them will be someone's wife/husband mom/dad and we want them to be productive members of society.
The point is to educate. To be better role models. To show the younger generation, there's so much more to life than the now. There's a much bigger picture. They need to know about kids in other countries who are starving and dying. If they want a kid, try sending money to those kids! They would definitely appreciate the generosity.
Although I'm guilty of tuning in week after week MTV has glamorized teen pregnancy even though the "goal" is to show how difficult it is to parent at the young ages you mentioned. Every single one of those ladies have parents, a guardian or someone running to the rescue. My life was soooo not even close and I was in my last year of college.I've been in education almost 7 years and named a few babies. Heck, some of my students have more kids than I do. This is an emergency!
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