Well as you all should know by now I become a Mother at the age of 15 and because of this I am stereo typed, I am called names and labelled as just another statistic. In the last week I have read 2 interesting articles, one about teenage mothers and one about older mothers.
On Wednesday (the 23rd January) I read an article posted on various news sites with the title Teenage Mothers are looking for affection/love. Just from the title alone I was fuming, you know the saying never judge a book by its cover, well if this was a book I would of hated it, still I would of purchased it because it fascinates me how so many people still judge Teenage Mothers. Lacey Banghard (best known for her cleavage on page 3 and more recently Celebrity Big Brother) can do one with her pathetic name, I feel sorry for the girl, she's famous because of her body and doesn't have a real clue about the systems in Britain, that sentence from me comes after Lacey's spat at young mothers and un-employed people in Britain, that's just starting another whole new topic (politics) so I won't go into her stupid story.
So Teenage Mothers are looking for affection this is according to research carried out in an area with one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy. While the vast majority of teen pregnancies are unplanned, evidence
from a study conducted in Tayside shows that many young women who
deliberately get pregnant do so as a means of moving into adulthood. NHS
Tayside carried out the research to gain a better understanding of
young pregnant women, given the region's historically high rates of teen
pregnancy compared to other parts of the country, Holyrood's Health
Committee was told on Tuesday.Scotland has a higher rate of teenage pregnancy than most other Western European countries. Teenage girls living in deprived areas are four times more likely to become pregnant than those living in affluent areas.
Ann Eriksen, executive lead in sexual health at NHS Tayside, said: “Some
of the things that emerged from that piece of research – among those
young women who had said that they wanted to be pregnant, they wanted a
baby – was very much around looking for love, looking for affection,
looking for… someone they could love unconditionally, that would love
them in return.
The articles also go on to say other factors that teenage mothers continue their pregnancies for (because we are made to feel that abortions are the better way) with some of the factors being;
- Gaining recognition and status within families and within their communities.
- Family history was also a factor, with several young mothers themselves the result of a teenage pregnancy.
- There was a hope that they would be able to get their own accommodation, to be able to move out of the family home
Dr Lorna Watson, consultant in public health at NHS Fife, agreed that
deliberate teenage pregnancies often involved issues such as self-esteem
and "the degree of respect afforded within their relationship, within
their community".
This rubbish really does get on my nerves, I sometimes feel like I should stop trying to prove that I am different from the majority of teenage mothers but I do not want to be associated with the likes of these wrongens (because they are just that in my eyes). We hear it all the time, she only had a baby for the money, she only had a baby to trap her boyfriend, she only had a baby for the council flat, bla bla bla.
People need to start realising that me and you, her and him, her and her, him and them, we ain't all the same, just like me and the stereo typical teenage mother. I never wanted to leave home, I stayed at home till I was 18 and then me and my Dad both decided it was time for me and Spud to find our own place so we both had the freedom we was entitled too. Yet if I was just a 18 year old girl with no child and I wanted to leave home at 18 for freedom, I wouldn't of got judged would I? I bet your thinking that in your head right now, no one judges non parents for leaving home at 16,17,18 but when your a mother, you've done wrong, your just a burden to society and all that nonsense. I worked, I studied and I raised a baby all by myself who is now 2 months away from being 7 and is one of the most polite well behaved children you could ever meet.
I really could rant and rant all day long about society, teenage mothers and the way we are stereo typed but now I am going to move onto the second article that caught my eye, ''Nearly half of births in England and Wales are to mothers over 30 (according to this). That doesn't mean the other half are teenage parents, do you know there are mothers at 60 plus giving birth? What about them mothers do they get judged? Of course they do!!!!!! Yet they don't get as much stick as teenage mothers though do they, not from the media, not from most statistics. Their children however will get bullied, they will be mistaken for being the mothers grandchild, possibly even great grandchild.
I am not trying to start a debate but I am interested in people's views on the following;
1. Is it better to become a teenage mother?
OR
2. Is it better to become a OAP mother?
If you would like to voice your opinion I'd love to hear it, please leave a comment below and if you have the time please give me your reasons as to why you choose your selection.
Because I am a teenage mother I obviously would say becoming a teenage parent is better, my reasons for this are;
- We are younger and generally more fitter then OAPs, we can run after our children and will not help from younger more able people to help keep our children safe if we want a trip to the park for example.
- Everyone knows that as we age more and more problems start, we start loosing our hearing and our eyesight, of course this could happen to anyone of any age but generally more in the elderly.
- We will not need our children to start looking after us, as our bodies age things stop working, of course some elderly parents get put into homes, what would happen to the children, they would of course be shipped off to family or even placed into care themselves.
My list could go on and on and on, pages full of reasons, literally.
Get involved!!
Jade x
Sources:
www.itv.com
http://www.paisleydailyexpress.co.uk
www.scotsman.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk
http://www.ons.gov.uk
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