From daughter to mother in High School???

Written by The WORD

(The following article does not in any way reflect the beliefs or views of Manor High School or the Manor Independent School District.)

A lot of teens see pregnancy as the new fad. We say this because girls are getting pregnant at a younger age and are exploiting their pregnancies themselves with no problem. In other words, teenage pregnancy has become a commonplace in most of America’s high schools. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, "three out of ten teenage girls in the United States get pregnant at least one before age 20 -- that amounts to 745,000 teen pregnancies each year." Moreover, the United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of all the industrialized nations. Our rates are double those of England and Canada and eight times those of the Netherlands and Japan.

More importantly, however, teenage pregnancy is one of the leading causes of high school drop outs. Fewer than fifty percent of teenager mothers graduate form high school, barely two percent graduate form college before their thirtieth birthday.

Ultimately, teens should practice abstinence; but for those that don’t, they should take into consideration that they’re not the only ones affected should they become pregnant.
Parents are affected both when their daughters become pregnant and when their sons get a girl pregnant. Most parents feel an intense sense of worry and frustration asking themselves what they might have done wrong as parents. They feel that somehow their choices or actions as parents might have been the cause for their child’s carelessness or premature decision to have a child. Did they forget to cover a certain topic with their kids or should they have been more aware of what was going on in their lives?

There is a lot of time spent by the parents wondering if their daughter or son will ever finish school. Being that their children are now having children of their own, the parents now have to worry about having to provide financially for another child; the mental and physical toll of helping to take care of the baby; and dealing with the reputation and gossip that surrounds their child and their parenting among many other concerns. Although there is much to worry about and take care of, there is still that bundle of joy that they can call their grandchild.

When the mother-to-be is a teenager, unmarried, and without the money to support herself or a child, life can literally implode. A baby changes lives. There is no doubt, when the mother first finds out about being pregnant, there seems to be a never ending rampage of thoughts going through their minds. They worry about if their baby’s father will still love them, want them, or even care for the baby. They also have to face the inevitable late nights staying up with the crying baby, not being able to hang out with their friends as much, and having to face the gossip behind their backs at school.

The biggest obstacle teens should think about
is how they will finish school as teenage mothers with their baby. When a community discusses teen pregnancy it is usually in the form of statistics. These statistics include the number of drop outs, divorces, shot-gun weddings, abortions, adoptions, etc. Teens should know that their futures are not yet written, except for one part – the baby will always be part of their lives. Teen mothers should also know that they are not just statistics and the obstacles they face can be overcome.

The first thing a teenage father would think is that, because they only had sex one time, there’s no way he could be the father. However, it only takes one time for a baby to be conceived. When the reality of his early fatherhood hits him, the thought of actually being a father can be very hard to accept. He will begin to ask himself if he’s ready to commit and be tied down or how he will handle this new responsibility without a job. Although this is a huge step for a young teenage father to have to take, he must be willing to put all selfishness aside and think about the mother of his child and the baby she carries. In reality, only two out of ten fathers marry the mother of their child.

If babies could express themselves they would wonder why they were brought into the world if their parents were not ready to be parents. The baby’s main priority and fundamental need is to be loved. The baby has the right to be taken care of and provided for. The parents can say that they are ready a million times, but the person who really needs to be taken into consideration is the baby! Sure, the parents say they’re ready to be the parents of the baby, but is the baby ready to be the child of teenage parents? Many teenagers follow in their parents’ footsteps. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come down to the baby having a choice of what parents it has or what life they lead; but, being its own person, the baby can grow up to make and learn from its own and it’s parents’ choices. However, a baby needs both parents to be there as he/she grows up. When the parents are apart, the child is five times more likely to be less successful than that of the child that lives with both parents at home. At times, the daughter of a teenage mother is more likely to follow under her mother’s footsteps and become a teenage mother herself. As for the sons of teenage mothers, their chances of ending up in prison are twice as high of those whose mothers didn’t have them as teenagers.

When a teenage girl becomes pregnant, not only does it affect her life, but it affects her parents, friends, the man involved, and the baby. It is very difficult for teens to take care of themselves, much less a baby. Therefore, a big consideration needs to be focused on practicing abstinence.
Nonetheless, behind every statistic is an individual. Whether it is a parent, friend, teacher, sister, brother, aunt, or uncle, we should all stop contributing to the negative factors that make the situation even more difficult and give all we possibly can to assist and care for teenage mothers and parents as they strive to create a better world for their child.