DISQUS

Well said. Education is the key and not just the mechanics of how babies are made, there needs to be an ongoing discussion with our young people about sex and how it fits into a relationship and society at large. We need to discuss how sex can affect a person, how to be safe when sex is involved and this involves more than condoms and the pill, it also involves how to protect yourself from an abusive or otherwise unsafe environment, what STDs are, how to prevent them and where to go for help and advice if you think you may have an STD as well as teaching them all about babies, the lack of sleep, the never ending screaming, dirty nappies and all the other unpleasant stuff that most young people don't give more than a passing thought toward when they think "awww baby."

I got pregnant at 17, a few months before I got pregnant my parents found a condom wrapper caught in the linen after my boyfriend stayed the night and they told me that they didn't believe that I was ready for sex and that they never wanted to see another condom wrapper, so what did we do? We stopped using condoms of course! When I found out I was pregnant, I thought "Awwww baby!!!" and refused all advice to have an abortion. I'd like to think that I'm pretty intelligent as far as people go, but I was a 17 year old kid who had this novel idea of sweet tiny babies who are ever so cute. When my son was born the reality sunk in, within 6 months I'd lost all of my friends and my life revolved around what went in one end of my son and what came out the other and not much else.

I love my son to death and I'd never give him up, but if I could do it over I think I'd want to grow up first before I started worrying about helping a new little person grow up. I advise every teenager I meet who even shows signs of being clucky to do the same. You only get one chance to be a young adult do you really want to surrender that to another person, even if they are your baby?