I was having just this discussion with an old friend from high school on the phone the other day. His comment was: “having” to get married back in our day was not such a bad thing. We decided that we were more sexually responsible at 18 because we knew what would happen otherwise. As we all know, for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction—having sex at 15 would not only have meant a loss of your reputation at school, getting pregnant would have meant you would be sent away to a home for unwed mothers. (And why weren’t the boys shipped away for same time period the girls were?) What I am trying to get at here is that there are no negative reactions now to teenaged girls getting pregnant. I blame not only the parents for not teaching young men and women about the responsibilities that go along with having sex, but also the Government for not funding honest discussions about birth control in schools along with the chats about abstinence, and I do put part of the blame on actresses and other so-called celebrities who get pregnant out of wedlock and glamorize it. For the most part, they are adults with enough money to aid them in their life choices. And to me, the most important thing these young women are not taking into consideration is that they have effectively ended their education. They now have a child they will have to support. Granted some will have parental support and maybe even support from the child’s father, but for the most part they are the sole financial supporter of this baby. How in the world is any 16-year-old capable of that?

You can’t blame Hollywood for this mass teenage stupidity….it’s been going on a lot longer than these movies…don’t you watch Maury?

It is both, the desire for attention and pop-culture. The parents will have to take care of the babies…it is always the parents. How sad that the girls had to do this. I know that the high school is boring, and nothing to do in a small town.

Becoming pregnant and being a sigle mom has become an accepted trend. We who are older know the woes of that lifestyle, but unfortunately the teens will have to learn the hard way, just like some of us have. No matter what the cause is, attention or otherwise, I think it is time to have classes in high schools and jr. high schools to educate the girls and boys about this unfortunate choice. And parents, come on now, they can take responsibility, too, need to talk to their children about this new trend, and warn them how their peers may be misleading them.

I was upset with the movie. My 40 + daughters thought I was overreacting. The whole script was fantasy land. These girls are in for the shock of their lives. Is the movie to blame? It probably helped. Just this week a friend of mine told me that her daughter (18) came home and decided not to go to college this fall. She announced that she wants to be a mother! Just like that, out of the blue. She does not even date. The mother is now a wreck and wondering where did this come from? The girl is very much loved at home has all the privileges she needs and then some. The girl can’t even take care of her own dog. It is indeed sad to think young girls would think that all you do is play with a baby and then hand it over to Mom when you are tired of it or want to go to a dance but that is what is happening in a lot of homes.

Having taught a self-contained high school class for teen moms and pregnant teens for 15 years, I may have a touch of insight by now. First, it is not my job as their teacher to condemn, judge or condone their pregnancies; it is my job to educate them, help them with life situations and encourage them to never give up and to get a higher education. For the most part, they have had already difficult lives, lives many people cannot imagine. Heartbreaking lives. They are trying to survive and they are adolescents with adolescent brain development. They have made poor choices. Most didn’t think that pregnancy would happen to them. Some planned their pregnancies. I think that many girls want an idealized, happy family like they don’t have at home and think that having a baby with their boyfriend will make up for what they are lacking. Of course, being adolescents, they don’t think of all the consequences. I’ve told my students that my personal wish for all of them is that they could have had their darling babies after they had graduated from high school and attended college or vocational school, but the fact is, the babies are here now, so what are they going to do to to improve their lives? Get an education! As weird as this sounds, and it is the truth, so so many of the girls have said that if they hadn’t gotten pregnant and come to our program, they would have dropped out of school. But now they are in college. I’m NOT advocating that girls get pregnant if they are having problems!! Please don’t shoot me. :) The simplest explanation is that there is no simple explanation. A desire for attention, someone (a baby) to love them unconditionally, a family…. add your own opinions.

To deliberately get pregnant as a teen is a falsely perceived cop-out! They may think they are off the hook, and someone else will have to take care of them now. But, they will never have a life of their own. No independence for them, not for many, many, years, if ever.

I watch a lot of movies, even prono but it has never made me pregnant. This idea is insane. It was boys chosen by these girls who got them pregnant. Willingly, from what I have read.

It’s silly to blame a film about some silly girls starting a pregnancy pact. If the parents of these girls had paid a little more these girls and where they were spending time carrying through with the pact, then perhaps this story would have a different ending. Where were the parents while the girls were getting ‘knocked up’? Also, didn’t the school sex ed classes say anything about how much work it is to raise children?

I feel for the girls and the children, as it is hard, I live and grew up in a community where this is not uncommon. Movies and Hollywood don’t seem to play as big as part as does boredom or lacking something in there lives. there seems to be many reasons from accidents and honest mistakes to having the pregnancy planned. I think it is great the school has access to daycare to assist the families and encourage the girls to continue their education. I have seen many young mothers complete their education and move on with or without the support of others, whether it is from home, community or school. Their lives are not over, just taken in another direction where they can still be successful and have their family too. I believe they should be supported, true it will be hard, but they will make it work and be stronger because of it, and maybe be even closer with their families.

I think that young teenagers have been having babies for years only now they make it more public and the young teenagers don’t want to hide the fact they are pregnant and believe they can still have the same education and life style that they see on tv. Only to find out that only after they have the babies do they realize that it’s more responsiblitly and they just assume that other family and people will step in and help them. Then reality sets in and they end up saying to themselves “What was I thinking” and now they can’t change the fact that they are young parents and they have to learn to be a responsible single parent on top of that because most of the young teen boys run away and go on to lead thier lives as planned and only send money when they have to. The girls are the ones that always have to change thier plans and goals and now raise a child.