Essay/Term paper: Teenage mothers

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Sociology Essays

Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager's life.
Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, college is
almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most
teenage moms don't achieve. Young girls having babies isn't new, as a matter
of fact, teenage parenthood was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but
things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many
of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their
babies.
Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as
young as twelve. Fathers contribute little or nothing to the care of the
baby, therefore it's even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is
thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the baby's needs
come before her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the
full time task of raising a baby. Her world is changed from her world of
dates, parties, sleepovers and waiting for a Saturday so you can sleep late,
to the world of doctor appointments, diapers, baby formulas, bills, and day
care.
Experts say that girls have babies from lack of self-esteem. "Too often,
adolescent pregnancy is what happens to poor kids," says psychologist Judith
Musick. "It can be a symptom of having no better options." They need someone
to love and someone to love them back. What's cuddlier and cuter than a baby
is? A baby gives them something to look forward to and something that gives
meaning to their life. Studies show that a lot of teenage mothers come from
poverty and some of them don't know any better. There's definitely a lack of
education but it doesn't have a direct relationship to race or ethnic
background. A lot of teenage moms don't think that they have anything to
lose by having a baby.
Communities and Governments have tried to help out teenage mothers but
sometimes what they do just isn't enough. There is After-School Care for
young adolescents and there are community learning centers. In 1984 about 8.7
million girls were living with a baby and without the father. Only 58% of
those girls have been awarded child support. Of those who were supposed to
get child support in 1983, only half received the amount due. Twenty-six
percent received partial payment and 24% had gotten no payments at all.
Federal, state, and local funds must be provided for after school programs
for young mothers. Legislative initiatives have to provide authorization to
help communities start and operate a variety of programs that could be run by
schools or churches or some kind of agencies.
Unmarried teenage moms, by contrast, are the hearts of underclass
problem. Giving birth to children whom will never have a father and who
sometimes spend a lifetime on welfare. There's a special program to help
moms under 18 which provides a place to live, if the girl doesn't have any,
like a church or a shelter. The girls are also provided with parental
instructions, supervised childcare, and insist on finishing high school.
There's also allowance and training sessions. Some of the mothers are given
federal financing and a mixture of public and private management.
Maybe, if the mothers would be given another chance, they would have
taken a different path, and not have kids at such an early age. They have
probably learned their lesson and suffered the consequences. First they'd
finish their education, get a good job with a good salary, then get married,
start a family and support it.
Approximately 60% of children born to teenagers who are not married, and the
ones, who live and are not adopted, will receive welfare! "Teenage
childbearing cost the nation $16.6 billion in the year of 1985, and 385,000
children who were the first born of teenagers in that year will receive $6
billion in the next 20 years," said a certain study. "The first baby born to
a teenager will receive $15,620 in welfare payments and other government
support by the time that child reaches 20."- Study released by the privately
financed Center for Population Options. By the time these babies will reach
20, the Government will spend $6.04 billion to support them through Aid to
Families with Dependant Children, Medicaid, and food stamps. A third of the
welfare total, $2.4 billion, could have been saved if those teenage mothers
waited until they were 20 to have that baby. The U.S annually spends about
$21 billion providing health and social services to families begun by
teenagers.
There are some High Schools that learned a lot about this problem and
have tried to help out their peers. For example, John Jay High School. They
have a program for teenagers who have kids. The teen mothers are given the
opportunity to finish their education while their babies are in the school's
daycare center. Also at Spring Valley High, in Spring Valley, New York, a
Key club started a program to help out teenage moms, they have developed the
Cots for Tots program. Club members collect supplies that are often taken
for granted. They go to local businesses and citizens and donate their own
childhood toys to the disadvantaged infants. We forget that a lot of these
teenage mothers have very bad living conditions. Cold, damp shanties - most
of them empty, tattered, dirty mattresses that someone else threw away. No
strollers, not enough clothes and blankets.
Though teen-age parenthood is a global problem, it occurs much more
frequently in the United States than in other industrialized nations. Per
capita, the US teen birthrate is about twice that of Great Britain, Canada,
and France. Three times that of Sweden, and six times that of Netherlands.
Another important issue of this topic is Family values. Some families help
the young mothers, they support them financially and emotionally. It is not
uncommon in some families to have kids at an early age depending on their
culture. Others my not be that understanding about a situation like that.
They might even kick the girl out of the house. I know that, for a fact, in
my family it would be a disgrace to have a child before I'm married and
especially when I'm young. I don't even want to think of what my parents
would do. Although my older cousin had a baby and she's not married. She
lives in a house with her parents and her boyfriend. But, she's 25 years
old. Everyone adores the baby and she's a lot more fortunate than some other
infants. Everyone buys her things and she's very much loved. It greatly
depends on the situation and the family's culture and background, how they
will react to a situation like this.
A lot of the girls who get pregnant, also get that way not just because of
guys their own age but older men, or even if they get raped. On the other
hand, if an older man impregnates a young girl, it is more likely that he
will actually take care of the child. Based on 1993 California figures, the
American Journal of Public Health found that adults fathered two-thirds of
infants born to unwed teens. Adult men sired 77% of California births to
girls aged 16 to 28 and 51% of those to girls under 15 in 1990. The result
of this is that the number of births to teenagers still remains high.
Here are a few things that any community could do to help out:
- Provide prenatal and postnatal care for the teen and her baby, it can cost
as little as $600 for the entire pregnancy.
- Encourage girls to make use of the medical facilities.
- Educate teen parents about the complex role of parenthood.
- Teach them about nutrition, child development, health care, discipline, and
related topics.
- Encourage young girls to stay in school and develop job skills.
- Provide high-quality day care that will help the child's development, while
allowing the girl to stay in school and/or work.
- Sponsor pregnancy prevention programs that will keep teen mothers from
having more babies before they are ready.
It is estimated right now that 40% of girls who are 14 and younger will
get pregnant; 20% of those 14 and younger will give birth, and 16% will have
abortions. And furthermore, up to 70% of teenage mothers become pregnant
again within two years. It is surprising that in the end, the kids who
receive help now, will most likely be the ones who escape the cycle of
children having children. In my opinion, the next generation will be kids
whose parents are still kids. The parents will not be that much older than
their kids and maybe there wont be such a gap between those generations.
Kids won't have a hard time understanding their parents and the other way
around. But if you u look at it from another angle, what can inexperienced
teenage girls offer their children? They can't teach their babies right from
wrong. They probably would like to, but they can't because a lot of them
don't know it themselves.
This has been an issue of wrong and right for a long time, ideas of how to
work through it are there, but something has to strongly enforce those ideas.
What is being done, I guess, is not enough to work it out, if this is still
such a major issue and it concerns a lot of us. I don't know if in the
future something will give, but for now, there are a lot of teens with a big
and serious task and there is definitely no need for those teens to have that
task.













MOTHERS

Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager's life.
Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, college is
almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most
teenage moms don't achieve. Young girls having babies isn't new, as a matter
of fact, teenage parenthood was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but
things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many
of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their
babies.
Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as
young as twelve. Fathers contribute little or nothing to the care of the
baby, therefore it's even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is
thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the baby's needs
come before her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the
full time task of raising a baby. Her world is changed from her world of
dates, parties, sleepovers and waiting for a Saturday so you can sleep late,
to the world of doctor appointments, diapers, baby formulas, bills, and day
care.
Experts say that girls have babies from lack of self-esteem. "Too often,
adolescent pregnancy is what happens to poor kids," says psychologist Judith
Musick. "It can be a symptom of having no better options." They need someone
to love and someone to love them back. What's cuddlier and cuter than a baby
is? A baby gives them something to look forward to and something that gives
meaning to their life. Studies show that a lot of teenage mothers come from
poverty and some of them don't know any better. There's definitely a lack of
education but it doesn't have a direct relationship to race or ethnic
background. A lot of teenage moms don't think that they have anything to
lose by having a baby.
Communities and Governments have tried to help out teenage mothers but
sometimes what they do just isn't enough. There is After-School Care for
young adolescents and there are community learning centers. In 1984 about 8.7
million girls were living with a baby and without the father. Only 58% of
those girls have been awarded child support. Of those who were supposed to
get child support in 1983, only half received the amount due. Twenty-six
percent received partial payment and 24% had gotten no payments at all.
Federal, state, and local funds must be provided for after school programs
for young mothers. Legislative initiatives have to provide authorization to
help communities start and operate a variety of programs that could be run by
schools or churches or some kind of agencies.
Unmarried teenage moms, by contrast, are the hearts of underclass
problem. Giving birth to children whom will never have a father and who
sometimes spend a lifetime on welfare. There's a special program to help
moms under 18 which provides a place to live, if the girl doesn't have any,
like a church or a shelter. The girls are also provided with parental
instructions, supervised childcare, and insist on finishing high school.
There's also allowance and training sessions. Some of the mothers are given
federal financing and a mixture of public and private management.
Maybe, if the mothers would be given another chance, they would have
taken a different path, and not have kids at such an early age. They have
probably learned their lesson and suffered the consequences. First they'd
finish their education, get a good job with a good salary, then get married,
start a family and support it.
Approximately 60% of children born to teenagers who are not married, and the
ones, who live and are not adopted, will receive welfare! "Teenage
childbearing cost the nation $16.6 billion in the year of 1985, and 385,000
children who were the first born of teenagers in that year will receive $6
billion in the next 20 years," said a certain study. "The first baby born to
a teenager will receive $15,620 in welfare payments and other government
support by the time that child reaches 20."- Study released by the privately
financed Center for Population Options. By the time these babies will reach
20, the Government will spend $6.04 billion to support them through Aid to
Families with Dependant Children, Medicaid, and food stamps. A third of the
welfare total, $2.4 billion, could have been saved if those teenage mothers
waited until they were 20 to have that baby. The U.S annually spends about
$21 billion providing health and social services to families begun by
teenagers.
There are some High Schools that learned a lot about this problem and
have tried to help out their peers. For example, John Jay High School. They
have a program for teenagers who have kids. The teen mothers are given the
opportunity to finish their education while their babies are in the school's
daycare center. Also at Spring Valley High, in Spring Valley, New York, a
Key club started a program to help out teenage moms, they have developed the
Cots for Tots program. Club members collect supplies that are often taken
for granted. They go to local businesses and citizens and donate their own
childhood toys to the disadvantaged infants. We forget that a lot of these
teenage mothers have very bad living conditions. Cold, damp shanties - most
of them empty, tattered, dirty mattresses that someone else threw away. No
strollers, not enough clothes and blankets.
Though teen-age parenthood is a global problem, it occurs much more
frequently in the United States than in other industrialized nations. Per
capita, the US teen birthrate is about twice that of Great Britain, Canada,
and France. Three times that of Sweden, and six times that of Netherlands.
Another important issue of this topic is Family values. Some families help
the young mothers, they support them financially and emotionally. It is not
uncommon in some families to have kids at an early age depending on their
culture. Others my not be that understanding about a situation like that.
They might even kick the girl out of the house. I know that, for a fact, in
my family it would be a disgrace to have a child before I'm married and
especially when I'm young. I don't even want to think of what my parents
would do. Although my older cousin had a baby and she's not married. She
lives in a house with her parents and her boyfriend. But, she's 25 years
old. Everyone adores the baby and she's a lot more fortunate than some other
infants. Everyone buys her things and she's very much loved. It greatly
depends on the situation and the family's culture and background, how they
will react to a situation like this.
A lot of the girls who get pregnant, also get that way not just because of
guys their own age but older men, or even if they get raped. On the other
hand, if an older man impregnates a young girl, it is more likely that he
will actually take care of the child. Based on 1993 California figures, the
American Journal of Public Health found that adults fathered two-thirds of
infants born to unwed teens. Adult men sired 77% of California births to
girls aged 16 to 28 and 51% of those to girls under 15 in 1990. The result
of this is that the number of births to teenagers still remains high.
Here are a few things that any community could do to help out:
- Provide prenatal and postnatal care for the teen and her baby, it can cost
as little as $600 for the entire pregnancy.
- Encourage girls to make use of the medical facilities.
- Educate teen parents about the complex role of parenthood.
- Teach them about nutrition, child development, health care, discipline, and
related topics.
- Encourage young girls to stay in school and develop job skills.
- Provide high-quality day care that will help the child's development, while
allowing the girl to stay in school and/or work.
- Sponsor pregnancy prevention programs that will keep teen mothers from
having more babies before they are ready.
It is estimated right now that 40% of girls who are 14 and younger will
get pregnant; 20% of those 14 and younger will give birth, and 16% will have
abortions. And furthermore, up to 70% of teenage mothers become pregnant
again within two years. It is surprising that in the end, the kids who
receive help now, will most likely be the ones who escape the cycle of
children having children. In my opinion, the next generation will be kids
whose parents are still kids. The parents will not be that much older than
their kids and maybe there wont be such a gap between those generations.
Kids won't have a hard time understanding their parents and the other way
around. But if you u look at it from another angle, what can inexperienced
teenage girls offer their children? They can't teach their babies right from
wrong. They probably would like to, but they can't because a lot of them
don't know it themselves.
This has been an issue of wrong and right for a long time, ideas of how to
work through it are there, but something has to strongly enforce those ideas.
What is being done, I guess, is not enough to work it out, if this is still
such a major issue and it concerns a lot of us. I don't know if in the
future something will give, but for now, there are a lot of teens with a big
and serious task and there is definitely no need for those teens to have that
task.













MOTHERS

Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager's life.
Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, college is
almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most
teenage moms don't achieve. Young girls having babies isn't new, as a matter
of fact, teenage parenthood was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but
things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many
of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their
babies.
Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as
young as twelve. Fathers contribute little or nothing to the care of the
baby, therefore it's even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is
thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the baby's needs
come before her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the
full time task of raising a baby. Her world is changed from her world of
dates, parties, sleepovers and waiting for a Saturday so you can sleep late,
to the world of doctor appointments, diapers, baby formulas, bills, and day
care.
Experts say that girls have babies from lack of self-esteem. "Too often,
adolescent pregnancy is what happens to poor kids," says psychologist Judith
Musick. "It can be a symptom of having no better options." They need someone
to love and someone to love them back. What's cuddlier and cuter than a baby
is? A baby gives them something to look forward to and something that gives
meaning to their life. Studies show that a lot of teenage mothers come from
poverty and some of them don't know any better. There's definitely a lack of
education but it doesn't have a direct relationship to race or ethnic
background. A lot of teenage moms don't think that they have anything to
lose by having a baby.
Communities and Governments have tried to help out teenage mothers but
sometimes what they do just isn't enough. There is After-School Care for
young adolescents and there are community learning centers. In 1984 about 8.7
million girls were living with a baby and without the father. Only 58% of
those girls have been awarded child support. Of those who were supposed to
get child support in 1983, only half received the amount due. Twenty-six
percent received partial payment and 24% had gotten no payments at all.
Federal, state, and local funds must be provided for after school programs
for young mothers. Legislative initiatives have to provide authorization to
help communities start and operate a variety of programs that could be run by
schools or churches or some kind of agencies.
Unmarried teenage moms, by contrast, are the hearts of underclass
problem. Giving birth to children whom will never have a father and who
sometimes spend a lifetime on welfare. There's a special program to help
moms under 18 which provides a place to live, if the girl doesn't have any,
like a church or a shelter. The girls are also provided with parental
instructions, supervised childcare, and insist on finishing high school.
There's also allowance and training sessions. Some of the mothers are given
federal financing and a mixture of public and private management.
Maybe, if the mothers would be given another chance, they would have
taken a different path, and not have kids at such an early age. They have
probably learned their lesson and suffered the consequences. First they'd
finish their education, get a good job with a good salary, then get married,
start a family and support it.
Approximately 60% of children born to teenagers who are not married, and the
ones, who live and are not adopted, will receive welfare! "Teenage
childbearing cost the nation $16.6 billion in the year of 1985, and 385,000
children who were the first born of teenagers in that year will receive $6
billion in the next 20 years," said a certain study. "The first baby born to
a teenager will receive $15,620 in welfare payments and other government
support by the time that child reaches 20."- Study released by the privately
financed Center for Population Options. By the time these babies will reach
20, the Government will spend $6.04 billion to support them through Aid to
Families with Dependant Children, Medicaid, and food stamps. A third of the
welfare total, $2.4 billion, could have been saved if those teenage mothers
waited until they were 20 to have that baby. The U.S annually spends about
$21 billion providing health and social services to families begun by
teenagers.
There are some High Schools that learned a lot about this problem and
have tried to help out their peers. For example, John Jay High School. They
have a program for teenagers who have kids. The teen mothers are given the
opportunity to finish their education while their babies are in the school's
daycare center. Also at Spring Valley High, in Spring Valley, New York, a
Key club started a program to help out teenage moms, they have developed the
Cots for Tots program. Club members collect supplies that are often taken
for granted. They go to local businesses and citizens and donate their own
childhood toys to the disadvantaged infants. We forget that a lot of these
teenage mothers have very bad living conditions. Cold, damp shanties - most
of them empty, tattered, dirty mattresses that someone else threw away. No
strollers, not enough clothes and blankets.
Though teen-age parenthood is a global problem, it occurs much more
frequently in the United States than in other industrialized nations. Per
capita, the US teen birthrate is about twice that of Great Britain, Canada,
and France. Three times that of Sweden, and six times that of Netherlands.
Another important issue of this topic is Family values. Some families help
the young mothers, they support them financially and emotionally. It is not
uncommon in some families to have kids at an early age depending on their
culture. Others my not be that understanding about a situation like that.
They might even kick the girl out of the house. I know that, for a fact, in
my family it would be a disgrace to have a child before I'm married and
especially when I'm young. I don't even want to think of what my parents
would do. Although my older cousin had a baby and she's not married. She
lives in a house with her parents and her boyfriend. But, she's 25 years
old. Everyone adores the baby and she's a lot more fortunate than some other
infants. Everyone buys her things and she's very much loved. It greatly
depends on the situation and the family's culture and background, how they
will react to a situation like this.
A lot of the girls who get pregnant, also get that way not just because of
guys their own age but older men, or even if they get raped. On the other
hand, if an older man impregnates a young girl, it is more likely that he
will actually take care of the child. Based on 1993 California figures, the
American Journal of Public Health found that adults fathered two-thirds of
infants born to unwed teens. Adult men sired 77% of California births to
girls aged 16 to 28 and 51% of those to girls under 15 in 1990. The result
of this is that the number of births to teenagers still remains high.
Here are a few things that any community could do to help out:
- Provide prenatal and postnatal care for the teen and her baby, it can cost
as little as $600 for the entire pregnancy.
- Encourage girls to make use of the medical facilities.
- Educate teen parents about the complex role of parenthood.
- Teach them about nutrition, child development, health care, discipline, and
related topics.
- Encourage young girls to stay in school and develop job skills.
- Provide high-quality day care that will help the child's development, while
allowing the girl to stay in school and/or work.
- Sponsor pregnancy prevention programs that will keep teen mothers from
having more babies before they are ready.
It is estimated right now that 40% of girls who are 14 and younger will
get pregnant; 20% of those 14 and younger will give birth, and 16% will have
abortions. And furthermore, up to 70% of teenage mothers become pregnant
again within two years. It is surprising that in the end, the kids who
receive help now, will most likely be the ones who escape the cycle of
children having children. In my opinion, the next generation will be kids
whose parents are still kids. The parents will not be that much older than
their kids and maybe there wont be such a gap between those generations.
Kids won't have a hard time understanding their parents and the other way
around. But if you u look at it from another angle, what can inexperienced
teenage girls offer their children? They can't teach their babies right from
wrong. They probably would like to, but they can't because a lot of them
don't know it themselves.
This has been an issue of wrong and right for a long time, ideas of how to
work through it are there, but something has to strongly enforce those ideas.
What is being done, I guess, is not enough to work it out, if this is still
such a major issue and it concerns a lot of us. I don't know if in the
future something will give, but for now, there are a lot of teens with a big
and serious task and there is definitely no need for those teens to have that
task.













MOTHERS

Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager's life.
Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, college is
almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most
teenage moms don't achieve. Young girls having babies isn't new, as a matter
of fact, teenage parenthood was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but
things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many
of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their
babies.
Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as
young as twelve. Fathers contribute little or nothing to the care of the
baby, therefore it's even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is
thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the baby's needs
come before her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the
full time task of raising a baby. Her world is changed from her world of
dates, parties, sleepovers and waiting for a Saturday so you can sleep late,
to the world of doctor appointments, diapers, baby formulas, bills, and day
care.
Experts say that girls have babies from lack of self-esteem. "Too often,
adolescent pregnancy is what happens to poor kids," says psychologist Judith
Musick. "It can be a symptom of having no better options." They need someone
to love and someone to love them back. What's cuddlier and cuter than a baby
is? A baby gives them something to look forward to and something that gives
meaning to their life. Studies show that a lot of teenage mothers come from
poverty and some of them don't know any better. There's definitely a lack of
education but it doesn't have a direct relationship to race or ethnic
background. A lot of teenage moms don't think that they have anything to
lose by having a baby.
Communities and Governments have tried to help out teenage mothers but
sometimes what they do just isn't enough. There is After-School Care for
young adolescents and there are community learning centers. In 1984 about 8.7
million girls were living with a baby and without the father. Only 58% of
those girls have been awarded child support. Of those who were supposed to
get child support in 1983, only half received the amount due. Twenty-six
percent received partial payment and 24% had gotten no payments at all.
Federal, state, and local funds must be provided for after school programs
for young mothers. Legislative initiatives have to provide authorization to
help communities start and operate a variety of programs that could be run by
schools or churches or some kind of agencies.
Unmarried teenage moms, by contrast, are the hearts of underclass
problem. Giving birth to children whom will never have a father and who
sometimes spend a lifetime on welfare. There's a special program to help
moms under 18 which provides a place to live, if the girl doesn't have any,
like a church or a shelter. The girls are also provided with parental
instructions, supervised childcare, and insist on finishing high school.
There's also allowance and training sessions. Some of the mothers are given
federal financing and a mixture of public and private management.
Maybe, if the mothers would be given another chance, they would have
taken a different path, and not have kids at such an early age. They have
probably learned their lesson and suffered the consequences. First they'd
finish their education, get a good job with a good salary, then get married,
start a family and support it.
Approximately 60% of children born to teenagers who are not married, and the
ones, who live and are not adopted, will receive welfare! "Teenage
childbearing cost the nation $16.6 billion in the year of 1985, and 385,000
children who were the first born of teenagers in that year will receive $6
billion in the next 20 years," said a certain study. "The first baby born to
a teenager will receive $15,620 in welfare payments and other government
support by the time that child reaches 20."- Study released by the privately
financed Center for Population Options. By the time these babies will reach
20, the Government will spend $6.04 billion to support them through Aid to
Families with Dependant Children, Medicaid, and food stamps. A third of the
welfare total, $2.4 billion, could have been saved if those teenage mothers
waited until they were 20 to have that baby. The U.S annually spends about
$21 billion providing health and social services to families begun by
teenagers.
There are some High Schools that learned a lot about this problem and
have tried to help out their peers. For example, John Jay High School. They
have a program for teenagers who have kids. The teen mothers are given the
opportunity to finish their education while their babies are in the school's
daycare center. Also at Spring Valley High, in Spring Valley, New York, a
Key club started a program to help out teenage moms, they have developed the
Cots for Tots program. Club members collect supplies that are often taken
for granted. They go to local businesses and citizens and donate their own
childhood toys to the disadvantaged infants. We forget that a lot of these
teenage mothers have very bad living conditions. Cold, damp shanties - most
of them empty, tattered, dirty mattresses that someone else threw away. No
strollers, not enough clothes and blankets.
Though teen-age parenthood is a global problem, it occurs much more
frequently in the United States than in other industrialized nations. Per
capita, the US teen birthrate is about twice that of Great Britain, Canada,
and France. Three times that of Sweden, and six times that of Netherlands.
Another important issue of this topic is Family values. Some families help
the young mothers, they support them financially and emotionally. It is not
uncommon in some families to have kids at an early age depending on their
culture. Others my not be that understanding about a situation like that.
They might even kick the girl out of the house. I know that, for a fact, in
my family it would be a disgrace to have a child before I'm married and
especially when I'm young. I don't even want to think of what my parents
would do. Although my older cousin had a baby and she's not married. She
lives in a house with her parents and her boyfriend. But, she's 25 years
old. Everyone adores the baby and she's a lot more fortunate than some other
infants. Everyone buys her things and she's very much loved. It greatly
depends on the situation and the family's culture and background, how they
will react to a situation like this.
A lot of the girls who get pregnant, also get that way not just because of
guys their own age but older men, or even if they get raped. On the other
hand, if an older man impregnates a young girl, it is more likely that he
will actually take care of the child. Based on 1993 California figures, the
American Journal of Public Health found that adults fathered two-thirds of
infants born to unwed teens. Adult men sired 77% of California births to
girls aged 16 to 28 and 51% of those to girls under 15 in 1990. The result
of this is that the number of births to teenagers still remains high.
Here are a few things that any community could do to help out:
- Provide prenatal and postnatal care for the teen and her baby, it can cost
as little as $600 for the entire pregnancy.
- Encourage girls to make use of the medical facilities.
- Educate teen parents about the complex role of parenthood.
- Teach them about nutrition, child development, health care, discipline, and
related topics.
- Encourage young girls to stay in school and develop job skills.
- Provide high-quality day care that will help the child's development, while
allowing the girl to stay in school and/or work.
- Sponsor pregnancy prevention programs that will keep teen mothers from
having more babies before they are ready.
It is estimated right now that 40% of girls who are 14 and younger will
get pregnant; 20% of those 14 and younger will give birth, and 16% will have
abortions. And furthermore, up to 70% of teenage mothers become pregnant
again within two years. It is surprising that in the end, the kids who
receive help now, will most likely be the ones who escape the cycle of
children having children. In my opinion, the next generation will be kids
whose parents are still kids. The parents will not be that much older than
their kids and maybe there wont be such a gap between those generations.
Kids won't have a hard time understanding their parents and the other way
around. But if you u look at it from another angle, what can inexperienced
teenage girls offer their children? They can't teach their babies right from
wrong. They probably would like to, but they can't because a lot of them
don't know it themselves.
This has been an issue of wrong and right for a long time, ideas of how to
work through it are there, but something has to strongly enforce those ideas.
What is being done, I guess, is not enough to work it out, if this is still
such a major issue and it concerns a lot of us. I don't know if in the
future something will give, but for now, there are a lot of teens with a big
and serious task and there is definitely no need for those teens to have that
task.