You Dropped A Bomb On Me

From the news this morning, and no...not the weird & wacky section...

A pact made by a group of teens to get pregnant and raise their babies together is at least partly behind a sudden spike in pregnancies at Gloucester High School, school officials said.

WHAT? In the report it says that the average is 4 pregnancies per school year, which I think is awful enough, but apparently there are now 17 pregnant teenage girls running around the school. What I picture is them running around showing off their cute maternity clothes and saying things like "I can't wait to have this baby, it's going to be so cute!".

GROW THE F*** UP, GIRLS! I say girls because to call you ladies who would be against my better judgement, and God knows I always try to use that. It didn't give ages, but HS students are typically 14-18. Granted, I had sex while I was in high school, but never in a million years would I have been EXCITED about getting pregnant then, let alone do it on PURPOSE. It is not fun and games, girls. There's that "g" word again. It has nothing to do with the baby being cute, because let's face it all babies are cute, with the extreme exception of my nephews newborn picture...not an image I will soon forget. It has to do with being responsible. Wow! Did I actually say that? I'm becoming my mother. I delivered my son 6 weeks before I turned 30. I had helped take care of several nephews and a niece and had changed plenty of diapers, woken up early, bathed and fed lots of babies, but nothing quite prepares you for your own little wonder coming into the world. Nothing. I was not ready at all. Getting 2-3 hours sleep per day, on a good day, not being able to shower, not having energy to eat even though you are starving and still trying to deal with any body-trauma from the actual birth. I was miserable. Yes, my only true consolation was this miracle that we had created and seeing him do new things every minute of every hour of every day.

I remember an article in the LA Times once that said that girlfriends of gang members were getting preganant, as young as 12 and 13 so that, in the event that their boyfriends were killed int he line of "duty" they would have a part of him with them always. WHAT? I am sorry that these young men chose a lifestyle that would leave them dead at 15, but so be it. That is their choice. Why screw up your own life for a boy (again, not really men, right?) who didn't care enough about you to choose to LIVE!

I have known plenty of girls who had babies in high school or right out of high school and they have all turned out to be really great mothers. But, I am sure that if they had it to do over again, they would have waited. I am not saying they regret their children, just the life that they had to give up.

Let me say this, though. God Bless the parents of these ignorant girls. They are going to have to raise babies all over again. Because, like most things in life, when the going gets tough, the parents take over. I am sure that these girls are living at home, probably without a job and probably not with an excited boyfriend about his impending father status. The Grandparents will surely help out, but I hope that they don't take over. I hope that each one of these girls has to get up all night long. I hope their hair has to go up into tangled ponytails because it hasn't been washed in 3 days and I hope they get hemorrhoids the size of Toledo. I'm not being mean, but if they want to experience motherhood then have it all! Breastfeed until your nipples bleed and lose your bladder control. HAVE IT ALL!

To all of who already Have It All....and to those women who haven't quite gotten there yet...cheers to us. Cheers to those of us who have lived through the newborn phase and are drinking more wine everyday to prepare for teenagers. Cheers to those who not only survived babies and teenagers, but have grand kids to look forward to. Cheers to those who are waiting until they are "ready" even though you never will be. CHEERS!

Mirth & Merriment....