Why are teen pregnancies so high?

[KalamityKel]

However, you shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush. Many friends of mine who had children in their teens did and do NOT "sponge" off anyone. They work their socks off to earn a living, look after their children AND are in some form of education!

[atila the gooner]

I just knew somebody would play the poverty, broken families, lack of education card. Does that also mean that the individuals sense of free will goes out of the window also?

Yes david_carnell, you're right, you are talking bollocks. The sort of bollocks that says it's ok for an individual to do anything they want, if they are poor, uneducated, from a broken home, etc; and when it goes belly up, blame someone else.

[KalamityKel]

Incidentally, we've covered an awful lot on teenage mums... what about the dads?

[*Bob*]

If I try and think about why those members of my family all had teenage pregnancies.. I honestly think it was just because they had nothing better to do at the time.

Perhaps this makes me a bad person.

[LizzygotDizzy]

Sorry my computer was on a time lapse and I was answering the question regards Tea anyone? lol soz X

[mockney piers]

"I just knew somebody would play the poverty, broken families, lack of education card"

Ha ha ha, yeah, I usually find that gets stuck to the Lamborghini Countach in my Top Trumps set.

Much as you'd like to think it is, world ain't that simple, it never ever is. If it's all so damn simple then why can't you offer answers?

If you toss a grenade in then walk away, stopping briefly to turn and sneer how everyone else is 'talking bollocks' without the slightest attempt to justify, reason or back-up your assertions with thought nor evidence, then as far as I'm concerned that absolutely invalidates everything you have to say (see I can do sweeping generalisations too, fun isn't it).

[david_carnell]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> If I try and think about why those members of my

> family all had teenage pregnancies.. I honestly

> think it was just because they had nothing better

> to do at the time.

>

> Perhaps this makes me a bad person.

No, Bob, it doesn't. Perhaps, as Keef pointed out to CWALD, personal experiences can lead you to extrapolate out to society as a whole without any evidence to suggest that's the case.

[mockney piers]

Mind you having said that, just because Atila's posts are largely baseless, doesn't make them entirely wrong either, there are kernels of truth to be found in there.

[*Bob*]

Of course, David.

They're a stereotype, sure - but they do exist. I know where they live. I've been to their weddings (well.. the ones I couldn't get out of anyway).

[KalamityKel]

As with everything ;-)

[LizzygotDizzy]

I have worked hard and have made my decisions according to my financial ability and ability to bring up a child in a healthy and stimulating environment, even the number of children I have had has been governed by my ability to support them, and as to whether or not I can afford to give them at least a half decent life, and yet there are women out there churning out 5, 6 kids at a time, on benefits and with no thought of who is going to support them and looking to the government. I get really annoyed when I get approached by the women on the Tube, babes in arms, begging for money while I'm on my way to work, having safely secured child care/school for my children etc. so that I can go to work to erm....help keep her at home with all her kids and living off my money, makes me so mad, one such woman caught me on a really bad Monday morning...bad news! Of course I would love to be able to afford to stay home more with them but some of us unfortunately do not have the choice it seems.

[atila the gooner]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> "I just knew somebody would play the poverty,

> broken families, lack of education card"

>

> Ha ha ha, yeah, I usually find that gets stuck to

> the Lamborghini Countach in my Top Trumps set.

>

> Much as you'd like to think it is, world ain't

> that simple, it never ever is. If it's all so damn

> simple then why can't you offer answers?

>

> If you toss a grenade in then walk away, stopping

> briefly to turn and sneer how everyone else is

> 'talking bollocks' without the slightest attempt

> to justify, reason or back-up your assertions with

> thought nor evidence, then as far as I'm concerned

> that absolutely invalidates everything you have to

> say (see I can do sweeping generalisations too,

> fun isn't it).

You have your opinion and I have mine, and I'm glad you can do sweeping generalisations, I'm pleased for you,. My point is that everybody has what's known as free will, and the ability to think, apparently it's what sets us apart from the animals. So I don't see how poverty, bad housing, poor education, low self-estem, all the usual crap that is put forward as being an excuse for failure to take responsibility for ones actions. And what is it I'm supposed to justify exactly, the fact that I don't approve of people who don't take responsibility for their actions, and want someone else to clean up their mess? Again I make no excuse for my dislike of such people.

[*Bob*]

The problem is that in order to ensure you're providing deserving support for those who require it (I was a good year-and-a-half on income support myself, you know ha ha!) it seems that the system must also pay indefinitely for those who really ought to be shot out of a cannon into a giant bath of piss.

That's just how it is.. until someone can make it work better.

[david_carnell]

At this point I/you/we begin to get down to the base starting points of ideology. Are human beings essentially good or bad. Should government interfere (in a good or bad way) in peoples lives socially and/or economically. Are we all users of free will who suffer the benefuts and consequences of this or do we believe that external factors unduly influence the nature of peoples' lives.

You clearly agree Bob that the state should play a role in supporting those who have found themselves in a despairing situation. You claimed dole for 18 months. I don't know your circumstances and I wouldn't expect you to share them but I firmly believe that should a young mother find herself without a home and job and also has a child the state should provide for them. Where you draw the line is immensely difficult and something govts have been grappling with for 50years. I don't suppose the residents of East Dulwich can solve it in an afternoon.

[KalamityKel]

Grrr again... WOT about the fathers?!!!!

[Dulwich_ Park_ Fairy]

Or because they are stupid vacuous, no brain, no life, wasters, with very little by way of expectations and ambition other than pusing a pram around before their 16th birthday?

Inadvertently you're right in as much that it is often a lack of self-esteem which makes some teenage girls vulnerable to predatory boys. Have a biscuit.

[Keef]

Exactly right Bob. There have been programmes about that fella who has loads of kids and gets more benefits than anyone else in the country, and refuses to work, and he deserves a slap, plain and simple. But, it's not as simple as that, and many people are on benefits because they either can't find work, or because they literally would be less well off if they worked, and lets face it, on one is going to want to work all week and have even less money to spend. Unfortunately though, we can't give benefits to the nice people and withhold them from the piss takers, so we're stuck.

[mockney piers]

So atila, are you saying that at 15 everything you did was entirely thought through, the consequences of every action.

You never tried the whole fumbling each others bits thing, and had you got to the 6 yard box, so to speak, you'd have shot and scored, with er...rubber boots on?

If so, how comes, did you have parents who taught you right and wrong, did you have a good school that had decent sex education?

Perhaps we should just hang pregnant teenagers and shoot the fathers, that'd soon learn 'em.

[KalamityKel]

AND solve the problem ;-)

[david_carnell]

OK, what about them?

They want to have have sex....badly. Using a condom is seen as uncool and sex ed to highlight the risks involved is minimal at best.

Then at 14/15/16 whilst still at school they find out they are a dad. Brown pants time. Do you leave school, try and find work to support your new family; stay at school and try to get qualifications to support your family better in the long run; or decide it wasn't a serious relationship, it's not your responsibility and keep your head down.

Mum is f*cked. Twice (ahem). She came from a sink estate, had little love or encouragement from her family, found a boy who told her he loved her and promised her the world if she'd sleep with him. Not realising the consequences, and to feel wanted, she sleeps with him and gets pregnant only to realise he was a to**er all along.

How can you make an unqualified, unemployed 15yr old pay child support? I have no idea.

[KalamityKel]

David ur doing it again... not all teen mums are from estates wiv poor family and education!

[*Bob*]

david_carnell Wrote:

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You claimed dole for 18

> months. I don't know your circumstances and I

> wouldn't expect you to share them

Oh I don't mind sharing, David.

I wasn't in a despairing situation.. I was a musician on the dole (though I'm not sure if my parents could make that distinction). 'The Prince' (*spits*) and his so-called 'Trust' turned me down, so voila.. income support.

But I was trying, goddammit. And now I'm a musician paying taxes.

I am, however, fully aware that in order for the DSS to give me a chance to make it, they also had to fund 'Psychic Gun', the local metal band who (sadly) did not. That's how the system works.

[david_carnell]

KalamityKel Wrote:

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> David ur doing it again... not all teen mums are

> from estates wiv poor family and education!

Ahhh, sorry. No they are not. However rates of teenage pregnancy are highest amongst those from the lowest economic groups. Not all. But most. And not all poor people live on shit-hole council estates. I made that up. But you get the point.

[atila the gooner]

Mockney we're not talking about everything, we're talking about sex, the choice to have unprotected sex, and the results of unprotected sex. Note the use of the word choice.

[KalamityKel]

"protected" sex doesn't mean you're never going to be caught out tho... accidents do happen at wotever age in life