RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Teenagers make mistakes no matter how much money their parents make. This isn't a matter of "working class" or not.

*coughs "Jamie Lynn Spears"*

Absolutely, this is why I never watched Reba at first, I watch it now but isn't Reba a little trailer trashy fare though?

If it was an act of stupidity on the part of the parents, then they should take on the responsibility of raising a child. As far as social class is concerned, it doesn't matter. Girls from higher up can get pregant just as easily as the lower class (however, the higher ups have the finanical advantage).

I am opposed to teens under 18 getting pregnant and having babies at their young ages. I wish Ohio and other states would pass strict laws making sex between minors under 18 a class A or B felony. teenagers are just too stupid and too immature to have children.

Ignorance and superstition knows no social boundaries, and this part is no exception. The one difference is how this particular social ill is addressed by those who have versus those who have not.

Tbonyas words ring very true here. I was raised in a very affluent neighborhood in West Houston. A young girl in my neighborhood ("your neighborhood" in those days was very specific region that spanned a certian amount of streets that you ventured on foot and by bike)got pregnant her sophmore year. Her parents shipped her off to Dallas for a year to "attend a private school" supposedly. We knew her long time beau and the nature of their relationship. They were one of those young couples who actually were very sexually active at the time, there were so few then, we knew who they were. Brian the guy...was a close friend of mine, 16 and had been shaving for two years already and could grow a beard over the weekend! I always thought that what her parents did was so numb and snobby, even then living amongst many people like that. There was so many of them it was just kind of accepted. It's clear now that it was that kind of arrogance and distance from their daughter that probably was the root of her problems and a direct tie in with her getting pregnant. She was looking for love and was not getting it at home. No, this can happen to anyone rich or poor no class and high class.

I used to think so, until this really smart girl from a well-off background got knocked up senior year. Yup, it brings it all home then. If you don't use good protection and common sense, anyone can get pregnant. However, I would say if a certain school had high pregnancy rates, it is a good indicator of a lower-class background. MORE lower-class teens get pregnant than upper-middle class ones, and that's something a girl who worked at a hospital told me she saw for herself, based on records.

Better than becoming a teenager as a parent, but still not a wise decision.

Having a child as a teenager leads to a disruption of an individual's education, and impedes them from making money. This isn't to say that some people don't continue their education and become successful, but the majority of teenage parents probably don't live very well off.

teenage pregnancy comes from all walks of life. rich people are just able to cover it up better.

This is almost a surefire trip to the bottom of the economic pyramid. 50 years ago the kids found a new home through adoption. The mother generally went on to live a normal live. I know several women personally who had this experience. Now society has crumbled to the extent that these children keep the kid and both wind up on the bottom. Which paradym was better?

In my experience (which has included teaching at a number of Business Colleges), this is almost a litmus test among females. I have seen hundreds of young women shoot themselves in the foot by popping out a kid outside of marriage with the assistance of a "father" who invariably falls into at least one of 3 commonly overlapping categories (their descriptions and choices of terms, not mine): 1) Dope dealer; 2) Low-life; 3) Convict. Unquestionably among the poor and uneducated in many large cities, there is a culture/common practice of female lead households relying on a network of sisters, mothers, aunties, friends, government agencies and the public education system to help them feed, care for and otherwise muddle their offspring through to their late teens when, naturally, this same offspring begins to reproduce itself in the same fashion. It was as a young law school graduate that I began to learn where all my tax money was going. As I heard various stories from my students about "gettin' on the County" and such, I realized that I was financing other people's families. People whose explanations as to why they had multiple children (and of course, no husband) by different fathers by their early twenties was commonly "Well, that's just how things worked out." Reproducing early is a tell-tale sign of lack of education and participation in a culture that is commonly fighting to ward off poverty.