young mums and bad parenting

[suchislife]

No, not saying that all young mums are bad parents. My cousin is a young mum and she is excellent!

I'm talking about the ones I've seen on the news. The ones feeding their infants alcohol, whether it be by "accident" or to try and get them to shut up. I mean one mum fed their child burden and coke and actually LAUGHED as their child stumbled around the room!

I heard about two mums giving their young toddlers enough alcohol that the child could have DIED! What’s worse is from memory at least one mum got OFF on the charges and she was pregnant with twins. She even high fived someone in the court room when she was told her "sentence".

 poor kids, I shudder to think what sort of person they will grow up to be. I just hope that for their sake nothing like that or worse happens to them ever again!

[Boozy]

Stupid knows no age.

Sad stories, there.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I still remember the pregnant fourteen year old who came into the supermarket at nearly 10 o'clock at night, dragging another kid that looked to my untrained eye as around 3ish. She tried to buy vodka at my till and swore at me when I wouldn't serve her due to her looking underage and not possessing ID.

It's girls like that who really ought to keep their legs closed if they're too stupid to take the pill or get their boyf to wear a condom.

[Rubystars]

Layering protections is the best option because using the pill and a condom should cancel out the minute failure rate of a single method alone.

[blas87]

I always make my men wear condoms even though I am on the shot. The shot has 99.7% protective rate, which is better than condoms, but condoms help protect against icky infections and diseases, the shot doesn't do that.

So in case the condom rips, I still have the shot to prevent ovulation and to make my uterine lining undesirable for embryos to plant, and somewhat protects against sperm entering the uterus.

I can't believe the amount of teenaged moms I see at the mall and at other stores, stroller abandoned 10 feet away with baby crying bloody murder, and skanky teenaged whore mother flirting up a storm with an equally skanky dirty man.

[Greenday]

The pill itself is what, 98% effective? If you are going to be having tons of sex, just take the damn pill. It's not that expensive, and if you can't afford the monthly costs of the pill, how the hell would you expect to be able to afford to feed a mouth?

One of the girls I met this year decided to have sex with her new boyfriend (who I tried to tell her was an asshole), used no condom and she doesn't take the pill. This was back in October. Her TWINS are due in June. I believe it's the second time she's gotten pregnant. And the father decided to dump her and go out with his ex-girlfriend. Surprised? Anyone? Me neither.

[AFPheonix]

And even if it is expensive, there's plans and clinics out there that can get you cheap or free contraception, plus cheap or free ob-gyn exams, too. If you start using your girly parts, ya gotta take care of them. It's not hard to find these places, either, they're as close as the phonebook, or if you come and ask anyone in a pharmacy, they'll tell you where to go find them.

I know a lot of people opposed Plan B going OTC because they were afraid that girls would start relying on that (at $42 per pack, I don't have that worry), but man, if it keeps even one girl who has no business having kids from getting pregnant, it's totally worth it.

[Boozy]

Here's an interesting question on the topic: Does anyone think that the quality of sex education has contributed to teen preganancy? What kind of sex ed did everyone get in school? Does teaching "abstinence-only" work? How about access to condoms and birth control clinics?

I have a theory. Most teenagers who use their brains can find decent info on sex, and get access to condoms and contraceptives. Obviously, things can still happen in the heat of the moment, but less frequently than with the uninformed and condomless. The dumb ones who "didn't know you could get pregnant the first time", "believed him when he said he'd pull out", and "didn't have money for condoms and couldn't be bothered to find a free clinic" are the ones who, for the most part, get pregnant.

So we should protect the dumb ones from themselves by beating sex ed over their heads in schools, and making condoms ridiculously easy to get - like freebies in the schools. It won't solve the whole problem, but I bet it will significantly reduce the number of unwanted teen pregnancies.

I don't think my plan will go over well in the Bible Belt.

[AFPheonix]

Well, teen pregnancy rates in this country have gone down since 1980, so that's a bonus, but I don't think it's due to abstinence teaching, since a full 85% of us lose our virginity before marriage (and I'll bet there's a fair amount of that 15% who lied).

But yes, we need to be teaching a combo sex ed curriculum. Don't jump in the sack right away, but when you're ready, here's what you need to know about nasty diseases, what you can do to not get them, and how to avoid pregnancy like the plague.
There will still be numbnuts who still can't figure it out, and there will always be the people in religious schools who don't get any info on this subject (I know in the high school and junior high I went to, they veered waaaaay away from that topic. Fortunately the health book we had did have a chapter on it, so I did a little extra credit reading )
One and a half more years and this yahoo is out of office....yay! I saw a little old lady yesterday with a Bush Countdown keychain Cracked me up.

[Greenday]

As one of the youngest on the boards, I can attest to what is being taught in sex ed classes these days, in my area anyway.

In my high school, and even in the middle school I went to, they'd say it's good to wait till your married, but in all realism, most of us wouldn't wait. So instead of the abstinence crap that we wouldn't by into, they taught us about safe sex. One year it was about all the STDs (Now known as STIs, sexually transmitted infections, viruses have feelings too) and dangers of sex. That was freshman year of high school. Senior year of high school we talked mostly about safe sex. My teacher even managed to obtain a female condom which he wore on his head. I love that guy.

I'm definately a fan of teaching safe sex over abstinence. It's realistic to today's society. And it has good points. We can still have our fun, not get STDs (STIs), and not have kids of our own.

[AFPheonix]

You live on the east coast though, Greenday. I imagine that in the rural central parts of this country, they're not getting the same info. I can also personally attest to the fact that kids in religious schools like mine aren't getting that info, either, and I can't even imagine what a lot of homeschooled kids are getting in the way of info in that area.
Hell, I knew a family of kids that the parents "homeschooled" that couldn't even bloody READ.

I've had idiots come, after they've bought Plan B, and try to see what they could use to prevent another scare, but rather than bring up a bloody box of condoms or ask about birth control, they just bring up a few boxes of spermicidal gel or film.
Then I get to point out to them that these are used in combo with a diaphragm. (Look dude, I know you like it bareback, but be serious here.)
I give them the phone number and directions to the local Planned Parenthood, and hope for the best. Egads.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's no wonder that there are more idiots around; all the stupid people are breeding. -__-

[AFPheonix]

Heh...before too long, we'll be trying to water our crops with Gatorade, claiming it's got electrolytes plants crave

[Dreamstalker]

Here's an interesting question on the topic: Does anyone think that the quality of sex education has contributed to teen preganancy? What kind of sex ed did everyone get in school? Does teaching "abstinence-only" work? How about access to condoms and birth control clinics?

I remember getting fairly well-rounded sex ed, the teacher was frank about things (or as frank as one could be to a bunch of seventh-graders). Yes, abstinence was touched on, but not elaborated on or pounded into people's heads. What I didn't learn in class I asked mom, and she was pretty cool with explaining most things.

My dad has this to say about abstinence education: "It's like showing a 15-year-old a Ferrari with the keys hanging in the kitchen and telling them 'See this? You can't drive it.' " It's likely they'll try anything they can to get behind the wheel because it's cool, and to hell with any consequences.

I would tend to agree, especially with today's teens. Yes, there may be a few smart enough to say "Oh, OK" and leave it at that, but the majority will be spoiled risktakers who want X and want it now.

[Dreamstalker]

Heh...before too long, we'll be trying to water our crops with Gatorade, claiming it's got electrolytes plants crave

I could swear I heard of someone trying that once...maybe it was in NM during one of the many water restrictions. No idea what happened to the plants, but I'm guessing they died due to the salt.