BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Teen Moms Request Month's Maternity Leave

This is interesting...I just saw this on Prime News, and googled the story. I don't think it's a good idea to let teen Moms have a month off of school. Teenagers don't think long term, and I could see kids getting pregnant just to get out of school for a month...not thinking about the fact that they would be imprisoned for the rest of their life, and pay miserably for their choice. What do you guys think?

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My rant isn't as much about the subject itself as it is about the poor journalism in covering the story.

Where's the other side?

All the article reports is some counselor's reason for reviewing the current policy, but the reporter didn't bother to get the other point of view on why students shouldn't be allowed to take off for four weeks.

I guess that leaves all the room for us to fill it in. Good subject...taking me a little bit to formulate my initial opinion.

After all of 90 seconds of thinking about it, the jury of Angela decides against a maternity leave for the same reason happytobechildfree stated: Many teenage girls would do anything to forego the pressures of attending school, both scholastic and social. I can just hear their little minds weighing their options:

Why stick around here? My grades suck and I hate school anyway, and besides, Jessica just gave me a dirty look after English period for flirting with her ex-boyfriend at the football game. I'll show her.
A) I can get out of school for God knows how long plus another month after the baby is born
B) I've always wanted to be a mother anyway
C) Mom and/or Dad and/or siblings will help me raise it
D) Having a baby makes me more grown up
E) Isn't that what you're supposed to do when you grow up anyway? I'll just start early.

OMIGOD, I just talked myself into a new level of CF. I always said if I had a kid, I'd only have a boy. If it was a girl, I'd either send it away somewhere in a box or auction it off. God knows if I kept it around until the teen years, I'd have to do bad things to it like tie its legs in a permanent pretzel and remove its tongue so it couldn't be a smart-a$$ed witch to me.

My my, Angela, you're feeling particularly bitchy today! (as she rolls around on the floor screaming with laughter) ...

I'm not bitchy, I'm just drawn that way. *snicker*

"My initial reaction is if we are punishing girls like that, that is unacceptable"

yeah lets not punish the people who couldn't figure out how to use a condom....wern't we just dicussing a license to breed? I say we start with Denver.

Yet again, we seem to give priority to people who do something stupid (get pregnant as a teenager) over those who are doing the right thing.

I can remember in high school that the "at risk" kids got taken out of classes for a week to go on an outward bound project that most of them found enjoyable anyway. Why aren't we, as a society, rewarding kids who do exceedingly well with a little time off or something? How about giving people incentives to do something with their life for a change? How do people not see that things such as this only help to, somewhat, perpetuate a welfare mentality and may indeed make situations worse?

End of rant, but really what are these people thinking? I can see that there would be some benefits for young girls who seriously didn't mean to get pregnant and for some reason couldn't have an abortion, but surely the leave should only be granted in certain cases and they should be make to make up all of the work.

Malamutes -

My high school rewarded those who got high grades. Any class you got an A in as a senior, you didn't have to take the final. I thought that was really cool, because, yes, it DID seem sometimes like the "bad kids" got more breaks (extra study halls, excused from class to meet with counselors, etc.)

Now I hear from the kids in that school that NO seniors have to take ANY finals now. Well, where did the incentive go? Grr.

When I was a kid it cost my mom something like $500 to have my teeth sealed. The kids at my school who were low-income got all their teeth sealed for free. I remember how angry my mom was, because we couldn't afford to live on our own (we were living with my grandparents) after the divorce and yet she made TOO MUCH money to get that benefit. She had a steady job and was a single mom, and the kids who got the free dental work had two parents but only one salary, and multiple kids. (Oh yeah, and I remember how those were the families that usually had the Nike sneakers and the Nintendo game system with 50 games. Actually, my best friend had two brothers and all three of them had different fathers that they had never met, and her mom was single and didn't have a job. They had two game systems and hundreds of toys.)

Like my FIL said a few weeks ago, you have enough kids, the government will pay for them.

Angela, you are a riot tonight. Teenage girls do suck. I am so out of the loop as to what is in with teenagers now, I just can't relate to them at all. It's been such a long time since the teenage years, they are like aliens to me! I think they should maybe get a few days off to recover from the physical exhaustion of giving birth. I have to say, I think it's ridiculous that they roll women right out of the hospital right after giving birth. A little recovery time is needed.

It kills me how we've come full circle with teen pregnancy. Going back, it wasn't something to be proud of. I don't think people should be shunned or anything like that, but now it's like teen pregnancies are celebrated in a way that makes it appealing to other teenagers that can't see the big picture. I remember my thought processes as a teenage girl, and with the hormones and everything, I was a mess. But there were some girls that were so much worse off. I can't imagine dealing with a crying baby while I was a teenager, and crying myself all the time b/c of my crazy hormones. I would have definitely had post partum. So glad that wasn't my fate!!!

I think that they should have 5 school days (1 week) excused after normal birth. That should be sufficient time to get home, get the bleeding under control, and regroup. If the birth was via c-section, that would be a little different. Then, I think the girl should go back to school when the doctor gives her the all-clear.

Four weeks is WAY too much. And, how many of those girls would actually go back to school after their maternity leave was up? Probably not very many.

This is yet another example of how abstinence only education is failing our young people.

I was just reading a blog and saw a post on this topic...thought you'd be interested. She is a mother, and I think an intelligent mother and blogger (IMO). Her opinion is quite a different perspective.

She posted an older article she wrote that was also really interesting to me, which I disagreed with even more.

I can understand the need for a 4-week maternity leave from high school. That seems humane. But her other article is about a high school that wanted to put a special page in the year book honoring teen mothers for how hard they work mothering and going to school at the same time. !!!

That is where I draw the line. Give me a break. She writes:

A few months ago I read an article about a high school in Florida that included a section in its yearbook featuring the students at the school who are also parents. Controversy erupted as many in the community objected vociferously to this supposed glorification of �teen pregnancy.�

I, on the other hand, found it a nice way to honor the accomplishments of this high school�s student-parents. As anyone who has attended school of any kind while a parent will tell you, parenting as a student is damned hard work. I know because I had my first baby while in college and my second baby while in grad school. Juggling baby, bills, and books was mind-numbingly difficult, even with significant family help.

The issue I take with this is that I strongly doubt most teen mothers are paying their own bills. From what I've observed, most teen mothers foist most of the childcare off on their mother, or whoever else in the family is willing to help, and live in their parents' home. Supporting yourself and your family financially while going to school would definitely be hard, but I don't think that's what's happens in most cases.