We were chatting yesterday about the young girls, frequently teens, who get pregnant deliberately. The common feeling in the group was that the social welfare payments were making young girls see motherhood as a career option and that the kids were poorly raised, and communally raised, with the responsibility being frequently handed over to elders.
It got me to thinking, what price would I put on the experiences I had as a teenager and in my 20s (given that my first child was born when I was safely in my 30s).
I’d have missed out on being a student, surfing, mountain biking, heartbreak and hangovers. I wouldn’t have flatted with talented and interesting people. I wouldn’t have skied in Austria or cycled through Europe and South East Asia, I wouldn’t have met my husband at the Oktoberfest. I probably wouldn’t be running websites because my skills wouldn’t have been developed.
Now I know some incredible women who had babies as teenagers, have attained qualifications and gone on to raise their wonderful children and have fantastic lives. But these weren’t the girls who figured a baby would solve their employment problems – they had a different perspective from the word go.
The tragic thing is that these kids probably don’t even know what they might be doing, and their life is yawning ahead of them as a mass of years before they die. They can’t see the opportunities, the fun, or the adventures that lie just around the corner.
So, if you have a minutes, post a comment with the things you treasure from your 20s.
I have heard of pregnancy being a career option before.
But it is totally limiting. It would be nice to go shopping with the teen and be able to buy the designer jeans the other kids are getting. Not that it would be the decision but that it would be an option.
On welfare, it might not.