18 yr old daughter pregnant

[Anonymous]

She's already at NVCC so chances are she doesn't have her sh** together. I know that is not universally true, but generally, that's the place you go when you have no other options. Now pregnant. I'd head straight to Planned Parenthood if that's what she wants and from there, not sure what I would do--- I don't have a kid this age yet but I know it has its challenges. I'd want to see if I could somehow get her back on the straight and narrow, maybe use this as a major wake up call.

[Anonymous]

These anecdotes are nice and there are always exceptions, but the statistics are clear: children raised by single mothers go through life at a distinct disadvantage. On average, they have lower grades, get into more trouble, and report lower happiness than kids with two married parents. At every stage of life, their disadvantage is compounded.

If you raised a kid as a single mom and think s/he didn’t suffer a disadvantage, the truth is that you’ll never know. Your kid may be great, but you don’t know how much greater s/he might have been if given the time and resources that come with married parents. But more importantly, for every success story, the stats tell us there are dozens of others that don’t turn out well.

Becoming a single mother at 18 with no college degree is a recipe for disaster. Maybe OP’s daughter will be the exception, but it’s much more likely that OP’s daughter and grandchild will struggle through life and that grandchild will start school behind his/her peers and fall further behind every year.

+1. Romanticizing single motherhood has societally been a bad thing for children over the last 50 years. Teen moms also tend to go on to have other children with other men---which has further destabilizing effects on a child.
Were my 18 year old pregnant, I would encourage termination or adoption. It shouldn't be about what your 18 year old wants, it should be about what is in the long term best interests of the child, should she elect to continue with the pregnancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's already at NVCC so chances are she doesn't have her sh** together. I know that is not universally true, but generally, that's the place you go when you have no other options. Now pregnant. I'd head straight to Planned Parenthood if that's what she wants and from there, not sure what I would do--- I don't have a kid this age yet but I know it has its challenges. I'd want to see if I could somehow get her back on the straight and narrow, maybe use this as a major wake up call.

Do what now?

[Anonymous]

My 18 yr old came home announcing she was pregnant with the boyfriend in tow, She was scared but we let her decide if she wanted to keep the baby or not, we did not sway her decision either way but just recommended prenatal care if she decided to keep the baby, at first we were really upset about it, as it meant that all of her plans of being independent and waiting a while for a family all went out the window and the boyfriend is a controlling and possessive nut case, now we love our grand baby but we don't get much time with her.

[Anonymous]

If only there were a way to provide medical care and services for everyone who needed it, rather than, you know, give billionaires a tax cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These anecdotes are nice and there are always exceptions, but the statistics are clear: children raised by single mothers go through life at a distinct disadvantage. On average, they have lower grades, get into more trouble, and report lower happiness than kids with two married parents. At every stage of life, their disadvantage is compounded.

If you raised a kid as a single mom and think s/he didn’t suffer a disadvantage, the truth is that you’ll never know. Your kid may be great, but you don’t know how much greater s/he might have been if given the time and resources that come with married parents. But more importantly, for every success story, the stats tell us there are dozens of others that don’t turn out well.

Becoming a single mother at 18 with no college degree is a recipe for disaster. Maybe OP’s daughter will be the exception, but it’s much more likely that OP’s daughter and grandchild will struggle through life and that grandchild will start school behind his/her peers and fall further behind every year.

+1000