Britian’s Youngest Mother

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The British newspaper, The Sun, reports on the 12-year-old girl who is set to give birthshortly.

Look, I know times have changed since I was eleven, but really….I feel as if I am living on another planet here. Let's just take a couple of these points, one by one, shall we?

"A CHAIN-SMOKING schoolgirl told last night how she fell pregnant during a drunken romp — at the age of just 11."

Okay, well, my parents knew exactly where I was every moment when I was eleven (and for many years after). If it was during the school day, you can bet that the school would have called home if I wasn't in class. If I lit a cigarette in front of my parents while I was a minor, my folks would have snapped my neck.

"The petite youngster found she was expecting after losing her virginity to a teenager during the boozy one-night stand."

Boozy….boozy…boozy! That's kind of a flippant way of putting it, isn't it? We're describing an eleven year old girl being out

at night, without her parents, drinking, having sex, having casual sex, with a teenage boy who was also out, at night, without his parents, probably drinking

Does this frighten anyone but me?

"Lighting her third roll-up cigarette and watched by her proud 34-year-old mum, she confessed: “I didn't think I'd get pregnant because it was my first time."

Does this repulse anyone but me? She's twelve, she's rolling her own, she's pregnant, and her proud mom looks on as her pregnant pre-teen daughter smokes and chats about getting pregnant.

I can tell you that at eleven, I had no concept of sex. I didn't believe in the stork or the pumpkin patch, but I certainly didn't know the graphic details of sex. I didn't have too much interest in boys. I didn't "go out" at night. I didn't drink or smoke. I had parents who were parenting me. They knew where I was, they said where I could go, they established rules of behavior for us. They said no to us. They punished us when they needed to — and none of this time out crap either. At eleven, we were more than likely still getting a paddling. Grounding a kid doesn't have much effect when the kid isn't allowed to much without parental supervision.

The most frightening thing about this story? Not that the child doesn't have any concept of raising a child, but that apparently, neither does her "proud" mother. One wonders what the fate of the other children in this family will be. The fact that these types of stories are becoming less and less rare (and shocking) is beyond frightening.

I wonder if the pendulum hadn't swung so far to the other side of unwed mother scenario this type of situation wouldn't be so common. Times have changed since a woman who was pregnant and unmarried were sent away or confined. Back alley abortions (and their aftermath) are no longer necessary. Children of unwed parents are not considered bastards. That's fine, but I don't know if we need to celebrate unwed births to the extent we do. Sometimes, a little shame is a good thing. I wonder, too, if the giddiness of the media toward unwed celebrity parents doesn't fan this flame. Tom & Katie, Brad & Angelina, etc., the tabloids and main stream media swarm on this and report (with glee) every little development (no pun intended). Lastly, the pop out the baby, hand it to a nanny, go out and party every night and only spend time with the kid for a photo-op crowd (hello? Britney Spears?) is misleading and detrimental. That's not what parenting is about, that's not how "normal" people live. Parents have responsibility to teach their children what's right and what's wrong. They also need to launch counter-measures against the onslaught of glossy celebrity-based stories of glamour of parenthood – both unwed and wedded..

Read the rest of this train wreck here.

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