Glorifying teen pregnancy

[anriana]

I'm just going by what I was taught in my genetics class. But when you think about how evolution works, it sounds like a pretty damn good theory.

So you have no way of actually sharing this data?

[Greenday]

So you have no way of actually sharing this data?

I didn't at the time. Most of my time today has been spent in class or studying for a test.

Googled "Teen Pregnancy Evolution"

First link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1292228.stm

I really don't have time to do much more research into it right now. I have to do well on this test tomorrow morning.

[Ljt09863]

I am speaking as a mother of 19 month old baby. i just turned 22. i got pregnant when i was 19. i had my son when i was 20. while im engaged, the state views me as a single mother because i am not married.

no, i did not get pregnant because i wanted to live off the state. things were actually going pretty well for us when we first found out we were having a baby. we went out, and bought a new car for me to drive around in with the baby for doc appts and such. we were making plans, looking for places to live. when i was 7 months pregnant, my fiance lost his job. no matter when he did, job fairs, temp agencies, interview after interview, my fiancee didn't get a job until our son was 1 month old.

for 2 and 1/2 months, we lived off my income alone. i had to take my maternity leave an extra two weeks before my due date, because i was swelling horribly. then i had to jump through alot of hoops before i could get any type of pay for my leave. we had no choice but to get some help from the state.,

as of right now, i have no food stamps. we also qualify for WIC still, but i do not use it. i stopped when my son turned one, and no longer needed formula.

i think that there are some families who choose to live off the state. but i think that there are also alot more, who just fell on hard times.

about the whole college thing. i am trying to get aid to go to college, because i do want a better life for me and my child. but as it as, i can't afford anything for college myself. and my fiance is working two jobs. for the time that i am at work, and he is at work, we ahve to pay a babysitter. if i go to college, thats more time i have to pay a babysitter for. plus my car bills, and my phone bill, and all the same bills everybody else has. but im also buying food for three, im taking my son to doctors appt that has copays, and sometimes tests that aren't covered under my inusrance, that i have to pay for.

when it gets colder, i have to buy my son new clothes, since what he wore last year, is way too small. i do have alot of expenses on top of my regular bills.

does this make me more deserving that anybody else? no, it doesn't. but, it makes it easier for me, so i don't have to depend on the state later on in life. i don't want to depend on the state. but as it is, i can't afford to better myself.

[SorryIsGoodEnough]

I turned 20 almost exactly a month AFTER having my daughter.

I get financial aid, but not much. My loans are paying for most of my schooling as of this quarter.

I pay rent, but not much. About 1/8th of what anyone else would pay. I do have cable and internet. The internet is for schoolwork, and the cable is only ten dollars more a month. So yeah, I get digital cable.

I'm trying to get another job, but the thing is: Because here in America, we don't have universal healthcare (a whole 'nother topic right?) if I don't get an AWESOME job, I won't have healthcare handed to me.

Unless I make LESS than a certain amount a month. The county gives me around $400 a month for food, rent, utilities, and anything else I might need. That's it. I get no child support.

I have to make less than $1000 a month from OTHER sources of income to qualify for healthcare.


Did I mention I'm recovering from CERVICAL CANCER? Yeah. So I use the resources offered to me because I'm a single mom. So what? For me, it's a matter of life and death.



That said, I am worried about teen pregnancy rates. I don't think that with the way the economy here in the US is going, we have the ability to care for thousands more teenagers on government aid. And then NOBODY will receive assistance, NOBODY will get a second shot at an education, and EVERYBODY will lose out because there will be thousands of women and children back onto the streets.

[Flyndaran]

I think we can all agree that no matter what abuses of the systems may occur, actual help for those in need is woefully inadequate here in the good ole U.S.A.

I have crippling anxiety and social phobia that makes me need to psyche myself up to so much as take out the trash. I take enough paroxitine and clonazepam to kill a horse, and that barely keeps me from hiding in my bedroom closet at times. I have never been able to hold a job for more than three days in my 34 years of life. I've had attacks that sent me to the hospital and made me lose significant amounts of weight through sheer metabolic overdrive.

Oregon SSI says that I am not in need of financial help. They actually count what my mother gives me to keep me off the street as income!

Everyone screws up. Blaming people after the fact doesn't help anyone. Kids with kids either need financial aid or social services will need to take the kids away. That turns it form helping a family to absolute financial support for such children. That sounds less cost effective for all those bottom line people out there.

[Dark-Star]

~100 years ago "family values" was having two or three children before you reached eighteen.

Because not only was your lifespan shorter to start with ~100 years ago, between primitive medicine and a (usually) rough life you'd be lucky if half the kids you bore weren't dead or crippled before they turned eighteen themselves.

Try not to take facts so out of context.