Teen Pregnancy, Hollywood Style

My daughter was 15 and n high sch when she had her baby,& yes her father & I did have the talk with her, everything from safe sex & on. When she decided to have the baby and not opt for an abortion we were very proud of her.And when she decided to keep the baby we decided to help her in any way we could.She continued her studies and graduated from hi sch with honors! The "Baby" is now 14 years old (Mom has had the "talk "with her and they are very close), is going to school and is an honor student herself and her goal is to become a doctor. Oh! My daughter is now married, with college under her belt, and has blessed us with 3 more grandchildren!So, not ALL young pregancies mean they will drop out, they just need strong support. Our church also gave a lot of slack, I just told them to just imagine what if the would have given the same slack to the Virgin Mary?
yoschee

So I think teen sex is totally okay--as long as you're married. I'm so sick of people saying that it's not practical to wait until you're married, that abstinence is out of the question. If kids want to screw up their lives by doing things before they're ready, before they've made the appropriate committments to enable the act, then they should just take the big plunge and get married before they do it. Maybe that first love really is the best one. You never know.

This is just another example of our de-moralization in this country. We put celebrities on a pedistal, no matter what stupid thing they do. Jamie Lynn and Jane brown are not role modals for our teens to emulate. These young girls don't have clue about life and are now teens with a baby. Jamie Lynn can say being a mother is the best feeling in the whole world, especially with all her money. She will probably hire a staff to look after her baby. If she wasn't a celebrity and able to hire help, this would be just another teen pregnancy nightmare. Whats really sad is these girls can't see tomorrow and have no clue to the years ahead of them and how dramatically their future is altered. These young girls at this point don't have the intellect to be a good mother and will surely have a negitive effect on teens who emulate and want to be like Jamie or Jane. Since Hollywood refuses to plug contraceptive or abstanance because it would potentually weaken movie sales, It's now up to us to teach our teens to say NO or use protection. After all who's raising our kid's, Hollywood or you or I. The ignorance in our society to address this issue make me sick. .

im a teen parent and im still in school.... and my parents always talked to me about contraceptions and i was on birth control. Im raising my 8 1/2 month old son with my fiance and its not that hard. This year im a senior in high school and planning on going to college next year to be a nurse. This article really makes me upset im a heck of a good mother... and im sure if any teen was in this postion they would be too.

i complety disagree with you TES31287 @ 07/27/2008 6:59:01 PM....It doesnt meant that because your parents failled at talking to you about values and responsability all teens are gonna end up sleeping arround. I am a teen too but my parents have taught be about REAL love and real values and the beauty of sex and why it should be saved till your married. I think that this days in American society teens are searching for more and they end up in the wrong places. Juno is a great exaple of what American society has turned us... its about a girl who is bored and gets layed with a guy. all thorough out the movie it shows how "normal" it was and how easy everything tuned out. At the end of the movie it disgusted me how she didnt even want to see her own child! this movie turned the beauty of pregnancy and being a mother into a complete joke. Its not about using protection and "oh, the condom broke" its something deeper.. there is some sickening epidemic going on and we have to get to the root of it.

i complety disagree with you TES31287 @ 07/27/2008 6:59:01 PM....It doesnt meant that because your parents failled at talking to you about values and responsability all teens are gonna end up sleeping arround. I am a teen too but my parents have taught be about REAL love and real values and the beauty of sex and why it should be saved till your married. I think that this days in American society teens are searching for more and they end up in the wrong places. Juno is a great exaple of what American society has turned us... its about a girl who is bored and gets layed with a guy. all thorough out the movie it shows how "normal" it was and how easy everything tuned out. At the end of the movie it disgusted me how she didnt even want to see her own child! this movie turned the beauty of pregnancy and being a mother into a complete joke. Its not about using protection and "oh, the condom broke" its something deeper.. there is some sickening epidemic going on and we have to get to the root of it.

Thanks, I think so too. I do agree with you, I don't think that pre marital sex is ok, and I do plan on teaching my kids that it is not of good charcter to engage in it. I just hope to teach with love and not with condemnation. It is true that the emotional effects of commiting a sin like that are overwhelming and take a long time to get over, and I'm not sure that you really ever do get over it, but you learn from it and move on. You ask for forgiveness, and I made the choice to sin no more.... well in that area anyway, everyone has fallen short of the glory of god, and everyone is eligible for his mercy and forgiveness. I think that if he can forgive me then I should forgive myself too :)

Newsflash!!! Teaching our children to wait for marriage is a parent's way of neglecting all the facts. Yes, we should encourage and supply the reasons for waiting until marriage similarly we should supply the consequences for not waiting and most importantly about the facts about birth control and STD. My parents preached the importance of waiting until I was married on a daily basis. But never once mentioned what would happen if I did not.
I see a lot of interviews with teen parents but I have not seen an interview with a ???former??? teen parent. I had a child at 17. I would like the teens to see the whole spectrum like going to PTA meetings with parents 20 years my senior; doctors over looking my questions and comments and the financial struggle. Financial struggles increase as the children get older ??? there are extra curricular activities, older children eat more and their clothes are more expensive not to mention children of single parent homes want the same toys and vacations of those children in a two parent home. I stress to my daughter that I did not know any better, no one told me of the expense and the stress. I live with the guilt of having raised her just above the poverty level and shuttling her back and forth to daycare and baby sitters while I worked two jobs to make ends meet. I told her she knows better because she has lived it ??? don???t do it to her children ??? wait until you are married and financially secure. Thankfully she has and will be going into her second year of college.

I think sex education should acknowledge (not encourage) that sex is happening in junior highs and high schools. However, I think the perfect way to dispell this myth is through putting a price tag on being a parent. We should show how much is costs to be a parent - without any help or aid from the teens' parents. It is only when they see what reality might look like that they can then look in their wallets to see if they are equipped. If no money is there, use s condom, spermicide AND the pill. DUH!?

You know what...I was 19 when my first son was born, and yes out of wedlock. 23 when my second was born and I was married to the father of my first baby. We are going on 10 years of marriage. I have bitter sweet thoughts about motherhood. I love both of my boys, but think about whats going to happen when I get a job after being a stay at home mom for all of my kids life?? I have to compete with high school kids for jobs that will work around my schedule, the same as theirs, right after my husband gets off work to watch our sons. Employers won't hire a mother of 2 (one who was severyly premature and is in the hospital with asthma attacks almost every other month). It's not all it's cracked up to be trust me. All I can do is shake my head and wish the best to you young girls. If you think that having a baby is something that you want, then good luck with that. I'm sure we will be paying for you in our taxes because it's not going to be like Jamie Lynn. She has money, chances are honey, you don't.

You know what...I was 19 when my first son was born, and yes out of wedlock. 23 when my second was born and I was married to the father of my first baby. We are going on 10 years of marriage. I have bitter sweet thoughts about motherhood. I love both of my boys, but think about whats going to happen when I get a job after being a stay at home mom for all of my kids life?? I have to compete with high school kids for jobs that will work around my schedule, the same as theirs, right after my husband gets off work to watch our sons. Employers won't hire a mother of 2 (one who was severyly premature and is in the hospital with asthma attacks almost every other month). It's not all it's cracked up to be trust me. All I can do is shake my head and wish the best to you young girls. If you think that having a baby is something that you want, then good luck with that. I'm sure we will be paying for you in our taxes because it's not going to be like Jamie Lynn. She has money, chances are honey, you don't.

I think movies like Juno and mgazines putting teen moms (rich folk i.e. Jamie Lynn) on their covers are making pregnacy seem like its cool and being a teen mom is easy. I wasnt a teen mom but i have had teen mom friends and its not easy so for people, magazines, tv, etc say to the world its ok to be a teen parent u are wrong. Its hard and parents need to be harder on their kids. Its easy not to get pregnant..have safe sex or no sex at all. Nobody shows the reality cuz they are trying to make it "people friendly" screw that scare the hell out of these kids. Little girls watch Jamie Lynn on tv and for them to hear that she had a baby how are they supposed to react to that? come on people do right by ur kids

To "lovedove": Congratulations, you are among the minority. I sincerely wish that any teenager, male or female, who finds themself facing parenthood, will succeed in life; fulfilling their own needs as well as those of their child. It is ture that there are many circumstances. However, as the article points out, there is an opportunity for the media to discuss responsibility and accountability on the parts of the youth and their parents. In this day in age, where sex is literally everywhere, teenagers (thought the may not admit it) are in need of parental guidance and education. This education should certainly not come from the television! As awkward as it may feel and as humiliating as it may seem, parents need to talk to their children about intercourse, sex, love making and the distinct differences between them. As well as love, lust, commitment and the differences between them. Potential consequences of risky behavior should also be discussed. But perhaps above all these, a youth's self-image and esteem should be built and bouyed so that they do not seek out affirmation of their worth through sex. Why cannot the media recognize their unique opportunity to present these wholesome ideas and provide examples of how to discuss sex with a teenager and even paint it as cool to listen to and participate in a discussion with a parent? Teen pregnancy is not glamourous. Carrying, giving birth to and raising a child is a blessing...but it is incredibly stressful, time consuming, expensive and emotionally draining. I can only hope that the media might take a second look at how it protrays teenage sex and pregancy.