Honest to Blog??

I am sure by now everyone has heard about the seventeen Gloucester, Mass. teenage girls who made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. When I first heard about this pact a few days ago on the news, my brain did not know how to react. What I want to know is, what is going on in that town that encouraged this? This is probably one of the most absurd news stories I have ever heard about in my life-time. I am not exactly sure who to place the blame on, either.

Parents are blaming the media – of course – the most obvious and easy scapegoat to point the finger at. They are saying movies like Juno and Knocked Up are influencing teenagers by making under-age or non-marital pregnancy cool. To all the parents out there, stop blaming the media for everything!! Sure, the media might encourage your kids to say the “F” word more often and act out in a rebellious manner, but where are you during this?? Somehow your kids were able to turn that TV on or go to the movie theater or purchase that video game. And when I say “kid” I am talking age 10 and under, any person of average intelligence over the age of 10 should know right from wrong, IF you did a good parenting job.

I don’t think the media is to blame in this case, especially not the movies. Some parents are blaming the school system, saying that the sex-ed classes were inadequate. Once again, parents, why not look to where your child’s growth and learning actually begins – with you. Parents should be the first ones to talk to their children about sex and drugs and alcohol. It is not the schools main responsibility to educate students on these subjects, if it were then students might as well to a school bus to AA meetings or halfway houses everyday.

What really bothers me is that one of the baby-daddies is a homeless guy! Obviously there is something seriously wrong with the lifestyle the girls in Gloucester are living. Maybe there is something deeper going on, something the public isn’t seeing. Whatever it is, I think it is clear that these girls need psychological help, and that the parents and guardians of these kids need to step up their parental game.

Maybe what teens really need is to see what having a child really means. The responsibilities, the stress, the worry, the consequences that remain even when your children grow up. NBC has a new series coming out called the Baby Borrowers, in which teens are forced to “fast-track to adulthood by setting up a home, getting a job and becoming caring parents first to babies, toddlers, pre-teens and their pets, teenagers and senior citizens — all over the course of three weeks.” Teenagers and families should spend more time watching reality shows like this instead of other mindless shows, such as MTV reality hits like The Real World, which is actually nothing like the real world we live in at all.

I just hope these girls, for their own sake, know what they are getting themselves into. This is no reality TV show; they can’t give their babies back or step off-set to take a break and get their hair and make-up touched up. I would say I feel bad for the girls, but really it is their babies I feel bad for! I look forward to see how this whole situation pans out.