Thirty-Something Grandmothers

I cannot foresee this being anything other than foreshadowing an extremely serious problem. I take a very liberal position on a lot of social issues, but this is stupidity perpetuating stupidity.

There's no argument that will make me believe that there is just one way to raise children, but children raising children is a formula that will fail.

"As a result of Britain's high teenage pregnancy rate - the worst in Europe - many women are becoming accustomed to looking after their grandchildren while still in their thirties - and without any sign of a husband.

The new phenomenon raises questions about the social consequences of generations of children being brought up without fathers.

The majority of the women involved don't regret having babies but some who became parents in their teens told a BBC documentary they wished they had done things differently.

Miss Bailee, whose daughter became pregnant at 15, and has an eight-month-old daughter, said: "I put Rickeita on the Pill as soon as she started her periods at 12 or 13.

"It wasn't a case of giving her permission to sleep around but you can't lock a young girl in her bedroom 24/7.

"When she became pregnant I was upset, because she's very clever and I wanted her to go to college first and get a good job.

"I'd had her at 20 and it was hard. I had to buy everything second-hand or make clothes myself."

Miss Bailee, who lives with her three children, in Harleston, Norfolk, added: "I've taken up kickboxing and go clubbing twice a month with friends. You used to think of a granny as being a frail old lady with a blue rinse but I prove that's not the case any more."

She is no longer with Rickeita's father. And Rickeita split with her daughter's father."

4 comments:

Shira Salamone said...

Whatever happened to adoption, not to mention that other, well, possibly-unmentionable option? Whatever happened to child protection laws that were actually designed to protect children, not their parents? I'm of the opinion that it should be illegal for any person under the age of 18 to raise a child. For a child to raise a baby, whether or not that child is a parent of that baby, is a form of child abuse and/or neglect, as far as I'm concerned. How can it not be? It's difficult enough for an *adult* to raise a child properly. How can a *child* raise a child properly?

Jack Steiner said...

Shira,

It is more than a little disconcerting to see the apparent lack of concern about this. I wonder what they are doing about it, if anything at all.

Shira Salamone said...

I see that Blogger is behaving itself, for once, and has already published a link to the post that I wrote in response to this one, sparing me the necessitating of set up a link in this comment. You are cordially invited to hop on over to my own post on this subject and continue this conversation. I look forward to reading your comment(s).

Anonymous said...

I need some advice...the unpronounced grand mother ..the baby daddy that has thrown my daughter aside---

They are trying to take my daughters baby four month old. The baby daddy and my daughter moved into his moms house..they continued to argue so mom and dad threw my daughters things out on the fron porch and made her leave..only thing momma want to be grand ma...kept the baby...set my daughter up had her put in jail and guess where the baby is. I have told the police there are drugs over there but no one is listening...I need help so my grand son is not raised by those people...If moma grand ma is so great! how come all three kids were in jail at the same time...two boys and one girl????

Not Quite Abandoned

I didn't think it had been as many months away from here as it has clearly been. I was certain I had updated this place in December and ...