Last week I was having a bizarre conversation with DH's mom about teen pregnancy and schools making condoms available to students. It stemmed from me complaining about having to pay to send our kids to private school for a couple of more years while we are here in Hawaii. Our kids our in private school for a few reasons, the greatest being is that academically the Hawaii public schools are on the most part way below par. DH's mom thinks it is a great idea because of things like condoms in the health room in public schools. She thinks it is inappropriate for schools to make contraceptives available to students without getting the student's parents' permission.
While the thought does horrify me that parents would not be notified, I also believe something needs to be done to help curb the numbers of teen pregnancies. Obviously not all parents are as involved with their kids as we are and are not making it a priority to teach their kids about the consequences. I know a few people who could have benefited from having condoms made available to them in high school. But I also know that is not the complete answer to curbing/ending teen pregnancy. It is about the education and the parent involvement. Not all parents are going to be upset if their child gets pregnant or gets someone pregnant. I for one, would be greatly upset and my boys will know that! :-)
Anyway, the point of this post is that DH just sent me a link to this article. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html?cnn=yes
A little town near my old stomping grounds, has a boom in teenage pregnancy. A bunch of "directionless" girls made a pact to all get pregnant and raise their kids together. The school is contemplating making contraceptives available to the students, but obviously that would not have helped these girls. If someone WANTS to get pregnant they are not going to go pick up contraceptives in the Health Room.
I think Amanda Ireland hit the nail on the head when she said "'They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally,' Ireland says. 'I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m.'"
And let us not forget the nonsense with Jamie Lynn Spears... there is nothing like glamorizing teen pregnancy to make us believe it is cool.
So my plea to all parents is this... LOVE YOUR CHILDREN UNCONDITIONALLY. Help them find the love/acceptance they desire at home, not in a little baby. No matter what craziness is going in your own life, love your kids!
14 years ago
1 comment:
The story of the 17 girls getting pregnant makes me sad. When I was in high school, we had one girl have to drop out at 15 because of pregnancy...she had planned to return, but never did. We had another who was 9 months pregnant at graduation...and you could hear the whispers run through the crowd as she received her diploma. What do these 17 think? That they are going to have it easy? That they are going to be able to support themselves and their children? That they won't have to live on welfare? There are people who are married and have jobs yet still have a hard time supporting a family. It's sickening, not cool...and so sad.
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