Raising a child isn’t an easy thing to do. Raising a child while the parents are still in their teens is even harder. Dealing with the day to day chores that involves a baby and trying to work and get an education is very stressful on any teen.
Teen Parenting should be delayed because it is very difficult to handle, some can’t handle it. One of my friends is a teen mom, and she wouldn’t wish a teen pregnancy on any teen. Trying to work, go to school, raise a baby and still having some growing up to do is nowhere near easy. Dealing with a checkbook, a husband, a newborn, a job and finishing school at sixteen was hard.
But she managed, just like many other teen moms but she do wish things could have been easier so she could have enjoyed my first born even more, without all the added stress. A teen mom faces more than just the bills and the baby. A teen mom often deals with becoming stereotypical in the eyes of those around her, strangers, friends and all. Many people don’t wish to acknowledge the fact that it only takes once to get pregnant, which may very well be the case for the girl in question. Yet many people will look at her as lowly, assuming she got pregnant on purpose and slept around often. Her parenting skills are doubted, even if she follows the most popular of the parenting experts.
Closer to home, teen moms have to deal with relationship problems that may not be such a problem for a mom to be who has been in a relationship for a longer period of time. Boyfriends tend to drop out of the picture or promise to be around, only to leave later. Often the mom will realize he isn’t the best person in the world to be a dad, so she doesn’t push the issue. Child support is a problem, since most young dads, like the mom, are still in school or not making very much at work.
There are some great teen dads out there but unfortunately, they are few and far between. If the mom decides to stay with her parents, she deals with relationship issues on this front too. All to often grandparents want to take over. How can they not? It’s extremely hard to step back and let your teen parent another child while you know they’re so young, especially if the parenting styles they have aren’t what the grandparents practiced on their own children.
Babysitting, parenting styles, doubting the ability of the teen. All these can truly affect a teen mom in a negative way. Finishing school and working to support a baby is also a big problem. In today’s world, a college degree is almost a must for any good paying job. A high school education is even more important. If a teen mom still has to go to school and work, she has very little time to be a mother.
The worst part of it all, is that usually, that’s what a teen mom really wants to be. Most teen moms don’t want to be part of the statistics. They don’t want to be looked down on. They do want to take care of their child, or children, in hopes that they grow up to be strong people. They also want to show the world that they can be a good parent. It’s just too bad that society doesn’t readily give them that credit.
