Do girls still leave town because of pregnancy?

[Anonymous]

Hypothetical situation. If a classmate of your kid disappeared for 9 months, would you assume she had a baby?

If the girl was underage, would you do or say anything? Let's say the parents (parent and step parent) didn't seem like the most responsible people.

If your child's friend went away for "a program for girls" and possibly never came back, would you talk to any authorities? Say the kid has a parent out of state.

Does the age of the girl make any difference? Would you respond one way if 13 another if 16?

Wondering at what point it's simply nosiness and gossip and at what point you would be genuinely concerned for a girl in such a hypothetical situation.

MYOB right?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t jump to pregnancy at all. Mental health or substance abuse treatment or boarding school would seem more likely to me. Or to other parent’s house. And if you don’t know the family well enough for them to have told you, then yes MYOB.

[Anonymous]

And what exactly would you discuss with the authorities? That’s a strange idea.

[Anonymous]

If you're worried that a child is in imminent or current danger you can always report.

If it's a scenario where you don't really know the people well and you're filling in the blanks with your own narrative, then no.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Would never occur to me to call the authorities. What do you mean that the parent and stepparent are irresponsible? What are you imagining happened? It sounds like you are thinking Relisha Rudd but nothing you’ve said indicates anything at all like that.

How would this conversation with the authorities go?
“911; what is your emergency?”
“Send help! My daughter’s friend moved away!”

[Anonymous]

Hypothetically, if a 13 year old girl got pregnant, then that's either sexual abuse - a crime- or a relationship with another tween. If the former, the police should have been involved.

And in this scenario, the girl didn't "move"; the parents said she went into a 30 day program and the girl just.... never came back.

[Anonymous]

Teen pregnancy is sadly super common still in my hometown. They carry to term.

[Anonymous]

How do you know they didn’t lose custody, or she wasn’t in a program for mental health or eating disorders? Why did you assume she went to a home for pregnant teens? Reading a few too many novels?

[Anonymous]

It is bizarre to call the authorities without more information. So strange to go there, OP.

If a kid left town for a school year I would assume it could be anything from parents taking a sabbatical abroad to mental health or behavioral challenges to parents looking for different schooling options because of COVID.

[Anonymous]

I’d reach out to the school cousin I was truly concerned for her well-being.

Unless the family was very religious, I’d assume mental health, addiction, boarding school and pregnancy- in that order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d reach out to the school cousin I was truly concerned for her well-being.

Unless the family was very religious, I’d assume mental health, addiction, boarding school and pregnancy- in that order.

Cousin should be counselor

[Anonymous]

If anything, I've seen the parents step in and make a huge deal about the pregnancy, acting like they're all excited about it on social media. I've seen this now 3-4 times and in each instance, the tone of the messaging has had an air of "I dare you to challenge me on this."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t jump to pregnancy at all. Mental health or substance abuse treatment or boarding school would seem more likely to me. Or to other parent’s house. And if you don’t know the family well enough for them to have told you, then yes MYOB.

This is what I would assume.

[Anonymous]

Could be eating disorder? Drug rehab? Etc…

[Anonymous]

No they go on reality TV shows and flaunt it to the world.