Teenage Mothers

I can’t say that I am a part of the Country Club, sports team, or the Red Hat Ladies, but there is a special group that I am proud to say I am a part of; The Teenage Mothers Group. We have three main values in our lives which are trust, education, and family. This is by far the best unofficial group that I have ever been a part of.

Clearly, this group has been around since the beginning of time. Women have been having children forever. In the “golden days” younger women than I were having children. Since then, century by century, the age of women having babies has gotten older and older. In the 21st century that we live in today women are slightly frowned upon for having a child as a teenager. In this era women typically try and get through their education and have a career before having children, which is respectable, but it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes, it happens unexpectedly during your teenage years.

Furthermore, I first became a part of this group in February of 2007 when I became pregnant with my son Kaleb. I was only seventeen at the time of conception. This was totally scary by the way. There are only two rules that allow you to be a part of this group, and they are: you must be under the age of eighteen, and have a baby. You become a member of this group the moment you become pregnant. Motherhood starts with the morning sickness, indigestion, and heartburn in the beginning. This lasts usually about the first twelve to sixteen weeks. After this your back and feet begin to hurt, and swell, and it is all down hill from there.

After 40 to 42 weeks of misery you finally get to see the reason behind why you went through all the pain. The baby is finally here and the real fun begins. You now get to hold him/her in your arms and love them with every inch of your body. But reality will soon hit, and you will be up all night with your baby: changing diapers, feeding him/her every two to three hours, and washing bottles and clothes until, your sick of it. This is when the group comes in handy. You get to put everything on hold for just a few moments and talk with another mother who is going through pretty much what you are, or has been there as a teenage mother at some point and time in their life.

In essence, there are some mothers like myself who have lots of support from their family, and there are some that don’t have any help at all. That is why this group is important to me. Having a baby changes your life significantly, whether it is positive or negative. In my experience, having Kaleb has been the most wonderful thing in my life but only because I have had my mother behind me to help me. There are mothers who need help who have no support, and that is why our group exists. Our group is around to help other mothers with their moods and to encourage them to keep on and just stick with it, because it is worth it. In just the little under five months that Kaleb has been in my world it has been nice to talk to other mothers about my experiences. It really helps to be able to express your feelings, emotions, and hardships with another mother.

For the most part, I can say that The Teenage Mothers group feels that it is important to be there for each other when they fall. Trust is something our group has among other things. We value trust in one another to be honest and tell everyone within the group how we really feel. Teenage mothers don’t always make the decision to become pregnant, yes I realize if you are old enough to do the “crime” your old enough to do the time.

After all, that is why the group is there for each other to push them through their rough times. In this group we share good stories, bad stories, pictures, and more. We like to make the best out of everything. Teenage mothers have it quite rough sometimes. We like to know we can trust one another to keep our confessions in their confidence.

In addition to trust we also value getting our education for ourselves and our children. It is extremely important that we value school, because without an education we will be nothing. Now days you cannot even get a job at a fast food restaurant without at least a high school diploma. If you are attending high school and want to get a job your grades must be above a C average. An education is the key to starting a healthy respectful life for you and your child.

In order to lead a respectful life, as I like to put it, you must first have an education. I graduated high school before I became pregnant with Kaleb. I already had the basics over with. It was then time for me to start college. To have a fairly well paying job you have to go to college and have some kind of a degree. To quote the service man at my Poultry houses, “You could have a degree in BS and get a job, but without it you’re up a creek without a paddle”.

Thirdly, we value our families. Family is one of the most important values we have. In a young girls’ life, most of the time they have no one to turn to but their immediate family for help and support. Sometimes, though not a lot the father of the child remains in the picture and she has him to turn to, as far as that may go. In most cases the “baby daddy” runs out on the mother and leaves her with all the responsibility of rearing a child.

Currently, I believe I have the best situation of all though, I am not tied down “married” to my significant other, he still hangs around and takes on the responsibility of being a parent, and I have my mothers support. I don’t see how I would have the relationship I have with Kaleb now if I didn’t