Teen Dads

I think the discussion of teen dads is really interesting. We hear so much about the moms and not a whole lot about the dads. We are quick to assume that the dad is a horrible guy but I started thinking about his side of the situation.

Society has this stereotype that all teen dads are bad. There is a certain expectation that the dad will leave or not take care of the baby or be there for the mom. This may be true in many cases but not all. And if society puts up this expectation, how do we expect the father to do any different? The more that society looks at these teen dads as bad, the more likely they are to act this way. And usually no matter what the dad decides to do, he is looked at negatively. For example, if a dad decides to drop out of school and find work, he can only provide little support for the mom because he can only get a minimum-wage job like any other teenager. So he is looked at negatively for not providing enough. But if he stays in school to be more educated and provide more later on, he is looked at negatively for not providing right away. So the question is, what do we expect from these dads? What would be the ideal situation? I can’t think of any. 

You can’t cut these dads out of the picture because they play a huge role in the child’s life. The link has statistics that show how important dads are and how they affect their child’s life along the road. http://www.dadsworld.com/parenting-statistics/importance-of-fathers.html

I think there should be programs to help teen dads. It should give them guidance on becoming a man and a father. This is a hard time for any male teenager. Having a baby at this age is expecting a lot of a young man. He is most likely not prepared for this. These teen dads should be given the opportunity to be a part of the baby’s life. I know that the stereotype is probably true in a lot of cases that the dad does not take that opportunity. But if there were programs to help the dads, they would not be as clueless and scared about being a father and would hopefully take responsibility.

-Madeline Schroeder

Sexuality

The topic I want to focus on in this blog is sexuality.  One thing we talked about in class Monday is how gender roles play into sexuality.  I find it apalling that people can look down on women when they have sex, but yet they encourage and praise men for having sex.  Why is that?  In sixteen and pregnant, Valerie pointed out that she used to judge young girls who got pregnant at a young age.  She saw the young pregnant women as whores or sluts,  but what about the man involved?  Why is he not seen as being any of these negative things?

Now days people are having sex at younger ages and are not that concerned aabout losing their virgrinity.  I know I viewed my virginity as a gift and I gave this to someone I love.  In fact, we have been together for over three in a half years now.  It suprises me when I hear about young girls, even some as young as seventh grade having sex.  To make it worse some are not having it with just one person, but they are having it with multiple partners.  It shocks me how much things change over time.  There are not very many people who are too concerned with wariting until marriage to have sex for the first time, which was not the case back in the day.http://virginityproject.typepad.com/the_virginity_project/virginity_loss_stories/.  This website just has a few more stories on some other women lost their virginity.

Thanks,
Elaina Stansberry

Chasidy Allen

I recently viewed Felicia's episode of 16 & pregnant and it really made me think. I still can't quite grasp the idea that men who participate in making babies don't believe that it's their responsibility to take care of their child. It amazes me how fast their attitudes change. How can you neglect your own child? I understand that some men don't want to have children at a young age but you should have thought about that before having sex.

You would think that with the amount of absentee fathers in today's society that things would change, that males would want to be different and not want to be just another statistic . The fact of the matter is that nothing has changed and as long as this is a trend, nothing will change. The rate in which teen pregnancies occur is beyond unacceptable. Young men are going into these situations blind. The blame can be spread between many things such as lack of parental support or knowledge in general. If things are going to change, parents must be more progressive in educating and raising their sons. In today's society we can not even preach abstinence, because now pre-marital sex is the thing to do. We have to preach safe sex, the use of condoms and contraceptives. There needs to be an established greater sense of responsibility and accountability for our actions and behaviors. We must no longer allow this behavior to go unnoticed, children deserve fathers and boys growing into men need to learn to be responsible.