Why do many teens today think it's okay to have babies at a young age, such as 16 or 17? Is this a big problem in our society? How long do you think teenagers should wait to have kids?
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Thanks.
Darrian Carter (noon)
21 comments:
Teenagers have so many ychildren because they don't see or in many times feel the consequenses of having a child early.
In todays society it is normal to see grandparents as the parents so the mothers AND FATHERS do not have to hold up to their responsibility.
Also we have community services and welfare agencies that will pay for the child as well. Teenagers that have babies have to be held accountable for the children that they bear. Thsi goes for both aprties. There are far too many kids without fathers because of mistakes made.
I don't believe that every teenage mother had plans to become a parent, in fact i think veryy few do. There are the ones that think that getting pregnant will make their partner be with them and support them if they have a baby, but this not the case in most situations.
This is far too big a problem in our society now. How do we fix it? I idon't know, but if we held them accountable for their actions (making them raise the child or better yet put it up for adoption) would make younger people see that it is extremely hard to be a responsible parent.
I don't think you can put an age at an appropriate level to have kids. You should have them when YOU and the FATHER are ready finincially, intellectually, and responsible enough to have children.
This was a very good question and I think you will get an awful ot of different views. Like others have said "It takes two to Tango" so both parties better be ready to dance when you enter this party!!!
Jesse Hill 8:00
My mother was a teenager when she had me so i knew what kind of consequences there are to a teen pregenacy. For one my mother never had the chance to go to college until just the recent year, she started the same time i did.
i always thought growing up that i would want to have a child at an early age because i would want my parents to have some time with the baby before they left but thats just the old kid back then now i feel that if i cant tell my parents that i have a baby then im not ready.
Teen pregnancy is big in my home town of Kankakee. I feel that some of the young ladys around the area are just having babies because everybody else is and i guess they feel that its the thing to do now. I feel that there's no age really to start having babies unless they know the baby will be well tooken care of.
tavaruss
I had a child when I was a teenager and for me it was the best thing that happened to me. I was brought up in a bad environment and in my opinion it helped me grow up. However, I don't think any teenagers should try to have a baby. I think they should wait till there twenty's.
Parents today raise there kids differently, I think this is the cause for alot of teenage pregnancy. Not all, but I think kids should get a chance to enjoy their childhood. Alot of parents today are involved with their own life and don't take the time to encourage and support their kids to do a variety of things. So that they keep busy and not worry with boys/girls.
I have two girls, and my number one goal was for them not to get pregnant like I did. I have a fourteen year old and a nineteen year old, I have always made it very clear to them that school, music, and sports are important to me. They know they have to be involved in something, other than fun and friends.
Missy James
They think it is ok to have sex....and then oh crap. The way we live as people now it is more expensive and very frowned upon to be a young mother, but around 16 is when a lot of woman start having sex. And thats just in our blood I mean you cant just change our bodies and what they need or want just because the world has changed.
We should make it illegal to have unprotected sex under the age of twenty. Otherwise I dont see it changing.
Jessica Ervin
I dont think teens nessacerly thinks its ok to have babies but they do think its ok to have unprotected sex. People should not start thinking about babies until mid to late twentys. I think it is a big problem because teens shouldnt have to worry about kids. Teens should be teens and not parents. Teenagers are still kids and dont need kids of their own.
Scotty
The problem isn't that teenagers are wanting to have children. The problem is that they are wanting to experiment with sex and they are doing it unprotected. And doing so they are putting themselves at risk at getting pregnant. Many of my friends that are still teenagers are pregnant. They are just making the bad decision to have unprotected sex. That is the biggest problem these days. And in my opinion people at least need to wait until they are out of college and have a good job on their shoulders in order to even give that baby a good life that it deserves.
Falynn Clow
i do not belive that teen pregnancy is planned most are axsidents or in some they are planned but for most it was not. i dont belive that anyone can stop this from happing it is scary that our socity the average age for young adults to start doing all that stuff is as young as 12 which is really scary. i do belive we need to up our sex ed but other than that as long as there are men and women there going to do that stuff.
tyler farmer
I don't think that many teenage mothers choose to have children at such a young age. I think that they are uninformed and irresponsible about safe sex. I think that the teen pregnancy rate would decrease if the parents and schools would give more information to the younger generations. Also some girls might think in having a baby at a young age, that it will keep the relationship from falling apart.
Jorge Lujano (8am)
I really don't think that a pregnant teen wakes up and says this is a great day to have a baby. How about all those really teens 13-15 that are pregnant and trying to figure out the rest of their lives. If they made a choice to make/create a child then trust me they will soon regret their choice. Birth is no laughing matter, neither are 3 am feedings or emergency room visits for ear infections. Then they can start working on their future. Many parents are faced with this problem today they woke up with a pregnant teenager and they have to figure out how they will deal with this situation. Teenage pregnancy is not a problem in society it is in fact a tragedy. There are 10 more girls that had unprotected sex and didn't get pregnant they got AIDS or another STD and now they have a choice to make. To either live or die. Did you know that there are 40,000 to 80,000 new HIV/AIDS cases a year and over half of those are people under the age of 25. So yes, this is effecting my society, your society this is an issue that effects everyone. Technically speaking anyone under the age of 24 is unable to make a thoughtful decision. According to In-Vivo evidence for post-adolescent brain maturation by Sowell, Thompson, Holmes, Jernigan and Toga the frontal lobe of the brains grey matter is not fully developed until well after the age of 24. This portion of the brain is responsible for response inhibition, emotional regulation, planning and organizing. It is responsible for reasoning. How can you make a decision without reason? So now its ok to have unprotected sex, drink too much and have a dirty room. Many people make 90% of their mistakes before the age of 24 and even for Jesus he waited until he was 33 to change his life. If I had the choice or made any rational decisions at the age of 15 I would have protected myself and waited until I was able to care for another life.
Teen pregnancy is a major problem in our society because of the lack of support and leadership within the immediate family. Many teens today are being raise by very young mothers themselves and there is not moral teaching and role models at home.
Shannon Adams
i dont think that all teens think that its ok to have a kid at a young age sometimes its the infulences of other adults that are around them pressuring them to keep the kid for there own reasons. it's become a huge problem in our society(well in champaign-urbana at least). although now its become so unrealistic for teens to wait until there married i think they should wait until then or long because sex is really not what its made out to be and i would adivse and teen girl to wait as im doing my younger sister who is now a freshman in highschool the pressures of having sex and be demonized
Martina Harvey(noon)
i think teenagers be getting pregnant so early because they probably be going through an identity crisis where they think noone loves them and they know babies are going to love them unconditionally no matter what so they have babies so somebody in the world would love them
Chadd Bailey noon
I personaly don't think teens should have kids unless they are married. I mean sure having children can be a great thing so I have heard. Yet the only way a teen should have a kid is if they get married at a young age. Yet who am I to say when some one should and shouldn't have a kid. I don't think you should have a kid till you are married and I don't think you should get married unless you really really love that person or after you get college out of the way. I just think after coolege one is more mature and is now going to be able to support he baby. I think teens having babies is an influence of adults and other teens, saying o I can't wait to see it and silly things like that.
Micah 12:00
I believe that some teens think that it is ok to have a baby because they see it all around them or maybe no one ever told them that it was not ok to have a baby. I also think that some teens are not trying to have a baby its just something that is happening. I do think that having a baby is a big problem in our society because I do not believe that these young people realized what they are getting themselves into. I think that you should be married to have a child or atleast on your own with no help from parents or the state just you and your partner and you both have good jobs to take care of the child.
Sierra (noon)
Brace yourself people: I've got a lot to say.
Jesse-I agree with you on the "have to be ready intellectually and financially" part. To answer your question of how to end it:by teens not having sex at all. It is simply the only way to prevent it. (condoms and birth control don't always work...and like we all know the majority of the time they are never even used.)
Missy- Yes, activities keep them involved in other things besides boys/girls stuff. I agree, it keeps them out of trouble and focused on learning how to prepare themselves for the real world by developing their talents.
Jessica-in response to your "in our blood, can't change our bodies needs" comment...its called self-control, respect, and discipline. And we should not need a law to tell teens to stop acting like animals. we have free will--not instinct that needs to be acted upon.
Scotty-its not okay to have protected sex. It is unnatural and immoral and we're not made to have "protected" sex. sex is not okay outside of marriage. the whole purpose of marriage is to A) consummate your love and B) reproduce in doing so. Our bodies were created for one partner...not multiple! STDs ring a bell? clear sign that serves as a consequence..among many other emotional and psychological attachment problems.--no wonder its so hard for people to stop talking, hooking up with, and "sexting" their exes. reproducing in marriage also goes back to what Jesse pointed out about being ready intellectually and financially. commitment is important for a child through out their stages in life and growing up in a stable home environment.Sex within a marriage secures that commitment. sex outside a marriage creates an emotional and physical attachment that eventually ends up being something one or both partners wish they didn't have.(how drama gets started!) I know (and I'm sure a lot of you know from experience as well) that unstable homes and divorces, separations, no love or commitment between your mom and dad for sure had a huge effect on you growing up. You psych students know what I'm talking about.
Tyler-Teen pregnancies are not accidents--sex is not an accident. and everybody knows that the reason we were created attracted to the opposite sex is in fact to reproduce. sex should not be abused in any other ways in which it is not meant for. i.e. hook ups booty calls "young love" infatuation whatever you want to call it.So why do it? maybe because people tend to be rather..irresponsible, impulsive, unable to control their passions,(no self-control), don't care about consequences, "living in the moment", immature, selfish, or just don't have any morals or standards--->(the most popular one, I think)most of the time its just an all the above kind of thing.
Tyler- in response to your "as long as there are women and men there going to do that stuff" comment...False. People don't need "SEX ED" I'm pretty sure every one knows how to have "Safe" sex or just sex in general. *ahem* teen pregnancy stats. Teens need RESPECT & MORAL ED. a girl/woman's virginity is a beautiful gift that should honored and and respected. She should give it to the person she loves and is going to love for the rest of her life, to the man who will dedicate his life to her and their children by caring for them.(sure we tell kids about condoms and birth control but do we tell them this kind of stuff? why do we make sex an option for them at all? parents who use the excuse of "they're gonna do it anyway" are setting their children up for self destruction. showing no hope in them--and that's not love.) If you want to get biological about proving this think about the psychological problems girls/women feel after loosing their virginity to someone who ends up leaving them...they feel used and empty, and will never forget who was their first. A high percentage of girls/women regret giving away their virginity at an early age before marriage because of this.
Jorge- Teen pregnancy rate would decrease if parents and schools instilled the right values in their children.
P.S. I applaud whoever threw down the stats and info about brain development--further backs up my reasoning. :)
And Shannon, girl I hear you. No role models and moral teaching-->where it all stems from.
I agree with Martina, good for you for encouraging your sister;she'll thank you and appreciate it one day, so don't stop!
except I think they are pressured to "keep" the child because no one has the right to make a "choice" based on whether a human infant should get the chance to live and grow in this world, no matter what age they are at. ever hear see the bumper stickers that say "it's a child not a choice"? Every child has the right to life--the child is not the mistake. Life is never a mistake. The DECISION to have sex before marriage is the mistake.
Chadd-Think its more of they want male attention so they give it up thinking a few minutes of pleasure will make them feel better about themselves. And/or they know sex comes with an unbreakable bond of physical and emotional attachment which they believe will secure their relationship with a guy( because every girl wants security or the security of knowing they will always be loved by someone the way they want to be loved) like it does within a marriage--when in reality...it destroys the relationship when its outside of marriage. and Micah...you know whats up.
Hope no one was offended.Just my opinion. Sometimes opinions are easier to get across when expressed bluntly :)
The End.
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