Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager's life.
Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, college is almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most teenage moms don't achieve. Young girls having babies isn't new, as a matter of fact, teenage parenthood was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their babies. Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as young as twelve. Fathers contribute little or nothing to the care of the baby, therefore it's even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the baby's needs come before her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the full time task of raising a baby. Her world is changed from her world of dates, parties, sleepovers and waiting for a Saturday so you can sleep late, to the world of doctor appointments, diapers, baby formulas, bills, and day care. Experts say that girls have babies from lack of self-esteem. "Too often, adolescent pregnancy is what happens to poor kids," says psychologist Judith
Musick. "It can be a symptom of having no better options." They need someone to love and someone to love them back. What's cuddlier and cuter than a baby is? A baby gives them something to look forward to and something that gives meaning to their life. Studies show that a lot of teenage mothers come from poverty and some of them don't know any better. There's definitely a lack of education but it doesn't have a direct relationship to race or ethnic background. A lot of teenage moms don't think that they have anything to lose by having a baby.
Communities and Governments have tried to help out teenage mothers but sometimes what they do just isn't enough. There is After-School Care for young adolescents and there are community learning centers. In 1984 about 8.7 million girls were living with a baby and without the father. Only 58% of those girls have been awarded child support. Of those who were supposed to get child support in 1983, only half received the amount due.
Worried about being the perfect mother, wife, and balancing her job with family life at home.
Being a parent is very demanding and can be hard. The difficulties that come with an unplanned pregnancy in teens can have a profound effect on their life. Their physical, social, mental, and emotional health will all be affected by a sudden change in the course of their life. Teens impacted with an unplanned pregnancy will have to give up many things in order to be a parent. In addition, they will have to take on many more responsibilities that accompany pregnancy and parenthood. All in all, having an unplanned pregnancy and becoming a parent introduce many new responsibilities and difficulties.
Each day increases the number of American families that face the tasks of balancing demanding work schedules and family obligations. Unfortunately, in case after case one finds the woman carries the major portion of these obligations. Recently I spoke with the mother of two young daughters. She went on to describe how she handled the task this responsibility saying:
Valerie was fortunate enough to be able to take off from work for thirteen years to raise all four of her children; however, when her youngest turned two years old and her and her husband went through a divorce things changed. Valerie had to go back to work sooner than she had wanted to support her family. Valerie start part time until the youngest child was old enough to begin school. From that point on, Valerie was fortunate enough to alway work in the same school district as her children, but still she faced difficulties. Whenever a child was sick, it was her responsibility to drop everything to tend to their needs. Valerie noted that while she always planned to return to work, she felt “guilty that [she] could not give the younger two children as much attention as [she] gave the older two children” (Archetto). One major impact, balancing work and family life has on women is the internal guilt that mother’s feel for leaving their children. Society makes it clear that when a child needs something it is the mother’s job to drop everything, but if she is working and not able to do as much women feel a tremendous guilt. In Valerie’s case, she had to call for extra help when her schedule and her children’s schedules differed. She hired a woman to come to the house in the morning and afternoon to get the children ready for school and to pick them up until Valerie
In this day and age the rate of teenagers who become pregnant has substantially increased. I myself am not one of them, but having a few friends who became pregnant at a very young age I've learned quite a bit about it. Now, I am not saying that teenage pregnancy is wrong or right. For some teenagers it could be a very joyful experience if they are mature enough to handle it. It can teach them lessons about life and responsibility. For the less mature teens though, it's a disaster. In that case, they shouldn't have been having sex in the first place if they weren't up to facing the consequences. Some may say, "How did this happen? We used protection?" Condoms and birth control are not 100% effective when it comes to avoiding pregnancy. Many of these methods have flaws which can result in becoming impregnated. Being a teenager with a child can be very hard. And in almost all cases, it is. A person has a new responsibility. A responsibility so large that other things in your life seem vaguely important in comparison. A person is responsible for a child, a human being, a life. We live in a tough world and we all have tough lives. Teenage pregnancy at times goes unrecognized because the birth rate is still high. Even though “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) directly funds teen pregnancy prevention programs in nearly 2,234 communities [which is] about 47 percent of all communities across the country”, there is still a large number of teenage pregnancies occurring (Almanac of Policy Issues). One of the reasons teen pregnancy is so illusive to many people is that most teenagers by the age of sixteen have had sex; abstinence isn’t part of our vocabulary.
continue to plan her life in a way that will enable her to attain all her goals.
John was the father of the baby. He is seventeen years old and is the typical teenager. He enjoys driving around, listening to music, and hanging out with his friends. He started having sex with Kim (the mom) four months into the relationship. They did it about once a week and used no protection. He thinks she will be OK but does not want to marry her. He is worried if he leaves Kim, he will be chased after for child support money. He wants to have the baby adopted before the birth that way he wont change his mind after he sees his kid. John has a serious problem. He is now a father and does not know what to do. He thinks you can just get rid of the baby through adoption and it will all be over. He is wrong. If I were in his position, I would be worried and embarrassed. I would think that my life was over. No more high school, no more friends, no more life. Just the baby and a job. I would fee responsible to take care of Kim and the baby.
work and is about to get married. The only work she has done is when
Growing up I was always told to enjoy being young; now I see why. A plethora of young teens today become pregnant in high school. I just so happen to be one of those girls. I would have to say it was a life changing experience for me. As a result, the parallelism between the aspects of my life as a teenager and as a teen mom are stress, responsibility and my emotions.
Many people nowadays are considered disenfranchised: the mentally ill, homeless, elders and many more. One major group that is often discriminated against are single parents. In recent years there has been a rise of single moms in the United Stated. With the increase of single parent households comes the rise of discrimination towards them. Single moms are often considered unhealthy for society and manipulative. Single mothers are discriminated against in the workforce and at social gatherings, and are often judged by society in general.
While many teens that engage in pre-marital sex never become pregnant, some are not as fortunate. Teen pregnancy has become all too common in this day and age. Some teens think it will not happen to them and do not use necessary precautions to protect against it. There are several causes for teen pregnancy and the effects can be life changing.
Teen pregnancy, it’s one of the growing problems in today’s society. Teens today have more problems than ever, and in many cases the parents mistake signs of the problems for mere puberty phase. Beginning problem, which often trigger the others, seem to be families. Deeply religious families are most often heavily strict, and that prevents the teenagers to be informed about real life and what are they getting into. When that kind of person gets in a situation where his or her peers are more experienced then them, the outcome is a pressure. During the puberty the teenagers, especially males, are having problems with controlling their needs. It is easy to get pregnant for today’s teenagers, because they face many unbearable problems.
As a child begins to enter adolescence, there appears to be a rise in conflict between the adolescent and parents. The amount of conflict differs from family to family and is dependent on many factors. It is mainly due to the changing characteristics and growing of the adolescent and the way in which the rest of the family adjusts to these changes.
Babies are born more likely to be born premature and/or suffer low birth weight. There are a lot of problems involved with children having children. There is a higher risk of low birth rate, premature labor, and stillbirth. The problem is teenage girls are not done growing and fully maturing, there for, when they become pregnant it induces problems not only on the baby but the mother as well. *A general rule: The younger the mother, the greater risk of complications for both the mother and child. Often pregnant teenage mothers deny the fact that they are indeed pregnant, therefor ignoring the proper care that she needs for the growing baby inside of her. There are no easy answers; that’s one thing that everyone agrees on when it comes to the problem of teen pregnancy. The Center of Disease Control and prevention affirmed on June 26 what other agencies, such as the National Center for Health Statistics, have been saying over the course of this year: “The teen pregnancy rate is dropping. The number of teenage girls across the country who became pregnant fell 12 percent between 1991 and 1996. This drops affects girls, of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds, in all states. But the problem remains; The U.S. teen pregnancy rate is the highest of any industrialized countries. Babies born in the U.S. to teenager mothers are at risk for long-term problems in many major areas of life, including school failure, poverty, and physical or mental illness. The teenage mothers themselves are also at risk for these problems.
...due to increasing uncertainty about the future. Fears of having the baby are prevalent as the teen becomes confused on the impact of the baby towards her own life and future dreams. In their lifespan development, delaying their education is necessary as they cannot hold on to both the education and the pregnancy. The depression developed is due to lack of effective handling of the emotions created by the pregnancy (Carlson, 2009).