Fifteen and Pregnant...

Is a heinous Lifetime film I had the "pleasure" of seeing in a hotel room last weekend during my road trip back to school. I only watched the last half hour or so of it, mainly for Schadenfreude.

So here's what I saw in a nutshell: Teenaged girl (played by Kirsten Dunst-why Ms. Dunst, why?!) gets knocked up. Girl's parents reward her and even redecorate a bedroom for sprog-to-come. Parents also brush pregnant girl's younger sister to the side. One scene shows the younger sister wanting to rest on the couch because she sprained her ankle. Teen Moom wants to lay on the couch and of course retorts with "I'm pregnant". The parents let Dunst's character have her way and the injured sister has to go to her room to rest. The younger sister gets angry and resentful through the film and the family makes her out to be some horrible person; she gets sent to a summer camp by the end of the film.

One scene had the pregnant teen looking at her belly in the mirror (gah!), and the little brother walked in and touched it. Barf!

I gathered that this film was made for breeders to feel validated in their decisions, as this teen witch was placed on a pedestal, while the little sister was made out to be a bad person for speaking her mind and being intelligent.

I hope Kirsten Dunst leaves this off her resume.

I do wish we would go back to a time when it was shameful for a teenage girl to be pregnant rather than celebrate these bints. The boys involved should also be held accountable rather than being able to just wander off to college and have more fun before ending up in a lucrative career while they left behind the girls' whose lives they have ruined. A preggo teen has no right to act snotty at home but should be damned grateful her parents did not show her the door as was done in my day. If a girl was allowed to stay home after getting knocked up, she walked on egg shells as it should be rather than get all sorts of special treatment. The younger siblings should be commended for speaking out against an older sister's stupidity rather than what was shown in the movie. Sending the little sis away only shows the attitude of how she may do the same as the older sister since that was deemed acceptable and a way to get attention.

I think a lot of the time, the preggo girl's mom thinks "oh boy, another baby!!" and takes over. These people seem to get so excited that there's a baby coming into the household that they forget HOW it is coming there.

I know my aunt did that when my cousin got pregnant at 17. They didn't tell anyone until after the baby was born (it was one of those supposed "I didn't know I was pregnant!" things) and I remember my aunt walking around the baby shower saying "where's my baby, who's got my baby?" I was thinking, "YOUR baby???"

But then, I always have thought it should be illegal for girls under 18 to keep their babies. It'd be better for the kids (no undereducated/underpaid mommy and possibly no daddy in the picture), better for the girls (they'll actually get to grow up and have a life), and better for the girls' parents (no having to take over the childcare) for the kid to be given up for adoption. That's a view that's gotten me flamed even on other CF boards.

K12144, I completely agree with you on the subject of minor girls keeping their children. Use this thought experiment: if the girl is too young (that is, too immature) to give consent to having sex, then why would you even begin to consider allowing her to keep a baby? Too immature to consent, too immature to be a moo, right? I have never understood the logic that permits a girl whose sex partner could be charged with statutory rape to keep a child.

One of the issues that drove welfare reform in the US in 1996 was the realization that minor girls were deliberately having children to be able to get welfare payments and even their own subsidized apartments. This was the case for girls as young as 15 in the city I'm originally from: they were able to get Section 8 housing. There was also the attitude from other girls who instead planned to stay at home that their mom would take care of the baby while the girl gets to use the welfare money to party, buy clothes, etc.

This is, of course, typical immature teen thinking wothout concern for the ramifications of becoming a parent. To a typical 14- to 16-year-old girl, a couple of hundred dollars a month in a welfare payment looks like a lot of money. Little do they know...

If parents allow their minor daughter to get knocked up, that calls into question their parenting skills and ability to protect their children, so this would mitigate against them keeping their daughter's baby. In other words, you didn't go a great job keeping your kid out of trouble, but you think you're able to bring up your kid's kid? Doesn't make sense, does it?

Using the logic here in my post, mandated adoption would be the best solution if abortion is out of the question. Unfortunately, we don't have the guts to do this, and there's even some sort of stigma against giving up a baby for adoption now. Someone explain that to me, please, because I sure don't get it.

I too, agree on the topic of minor girls keeping their baybees.

If a woman in prison gives birth, her family or husband do not automatically get the baybee. It is taken away and has to go through the whole child services channel.

Why isn't the same thing done in this situation?

I agree totally with all you all. I know of very few 20-something's who have what it takes to be a good parent, I highly doubt any more than 1% of teens have the necessicary skills.

I also wonder why adoption has such a stigma associated with it...people would rather spend 10's of thousands of dollars to bravely go through fertility procedures that generally don't work, rather than simply adopting a child of whatever gender they want, with an almost 100% success rate. Or why families would begrudgingly go through the motions to "raise" a teen's child, rather than just letting it be adopted by a family who actually wants a child for fear of the family genes being cared for by some stranger.

I think you should be able to give a child up for adoption for any reason. That includes these women you see writing in to Dear Abby and the like saying they had a kid, it's now six months old and they're miserable. Give it up, man. As long as the kid's too young to remember you, why not make sure it and the parent(s) have a better life with no unhappiness and resentment??

My local paper ran an editorial piece about teen pregnancy today. While the article doesn't openly glorify teen breeding, it doesn't do much to shame it. Feel free to post on the messageboard corresponding to this article!

http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/OPINION04/708290347