[BasketballCourt]

Wow, that's crazy! Sad that they are wanting kids before they are even adults.

[ChanelMommy]

Originally Posted by dallas

Here in Australia, women are given a "baby bonus" in the amount of $5000, and the number of teens - at my daughter's high school alone - that purposely became pregnant to receive the money was mind-boggling. What hope do the babies have when they are being raised by babies?

What?? What is this world coming too?

[BagLadie]

Upsets me too. I was barely ready at 28 when I had a baby....never mind when I was 15! What are these girls thinking of??? I guess times have changed because when I was that age the most I did was "make out"when the movie was over and we were in my driveway with my mother flicking the lights! Why isn't it like that anymore???? So scary.

[VPT]

Maybe one way of looking at it is that girls are started to lose their virginity earlier, maybe around 11 or 12, so by 18 they've probably had enough fooling around and want a child?

[guccimamma]

at that age, i was babysitting for everyone in our neighborhood...it was better than working at a restaurant, or late hours in retail

babysitting is the best birth control....i didnt' want a child until i was in my late 20s', and even then i had been married several years, finished college, and bought a home...i was still afraid of a baby!

[3011sarah]

Hmm... I would never have wanted a child at that age (Im 22 now with no children and have been married 3 years) BUT even just a few generations back people that age were having children and I do understand the built in drive. I am sure there are some (albeit rare) who are stable, mature independant people who just want a child. If they can support it on their own It doesnt bother me. It does bother me if they look at it as a paycheck or a way to become an adult...

[pollinilove]

some teens say they want someone to love them . they feel they have no one

i felt the same way when i was young i was a foster child but i wanted a dog not a kid

[nooch]

Little girls do not want children because they are normal and healthy - they want children because they're lonely and want love or because babies are cute or because they are convinced they could do a better job than their moms or because their "boyfriends" said they should have a baby or a number of other reasons that might not make sense to us well adjusted adults but make perfect sense to teenage girls with no self esteem.

Yeah, it sounds corny as hell, but when was the last time you saw a 15 year old who had her act together TTC?

[SwirlyGirly]

it's just such a sad situation for everyone involved. Especially for the kids. :(

[i_wona]

Originally Posted by ChanelMommy

What?? What is this world coming too?

To be fair, the baby bonus was introduced to combat the imminent effects of an ageing population. Unfortunately, the women at whom the baby bonus is aimed are a) often not really in need of the $5000; b) educated enough to realise that $5000 doesn't really go very far at all in raising a baby and c) busy setting up other areas of their lives (ie. career) and do not find $5000 that tempting given having children is a lifelong sacrifice!

While I don't think it's fair to say that every teenage pregnancy is either a mistake or the result of stupidity, I do think that many many teens have delusions about what it means to have a child. In turn, I think that this affects a whole new generation of children who then turn into uneducated adults who perpetuate this trend. I don't think you can underestimate the power of in-utero and early childhood influences: let's face it, children are learning from the time they are in the womb, and if you can't maintain a healthy, happy pregnancy and a balanced, happy childhood, chances are your child will grow up with problems of their own.

Interestingly, in some countries, the rate of teenage pregnancy is an indicator of low socio-economic status. In the UK and Australia (and some parts of the US) a lot of research has found that the lower the family income and education, the more kids those families tend to have.

Obviously, that's not to say that teenage pregnancy is confined to low socio-economic status; poor or rich, a teenage pregnancy (and the resulting childhood) is rarely as successful as a considered adult pregnancy and I think that this trend where kids consider pregnancy to be the "in" thing is complete madness.