On Monday the BBC news website had the story of three British teenage
sisters who each had become mothers at ages 12, 14 & 16, then on
Tuesday there was the even more tragic story of Beckie Williamson who
died of cancer aged 16 - with a daughter 3 years old.
The BBC story states:
“In many ways, Beckie Williamson was a typical 13-year-old girl.
She liked clothes and spent forever doing her make-up before going out
with her older sister. She smoked too much and drank more than was
good at her age”.
I know I left Britain 25 years ago but, for God’s sake, is smoking too
much, drinking more than was good for her, and conceiving a baby at
12 yrs old now considered to be typical for British girls of her age ???
This board moves pretty fast some times, so you can’t really fault yourself for not noticing.
By the way, both my grandmothers started having children when they were 13 and 14 years old. I don’t think “times have changed” that much. In most of the world, in fact, people have children really young. As far as history can tell, that has never significally changed. The Western attitude that says people should wait to have children has changed (for the better, in my view).
Speaking of times having changed, has anyone caught the latest Orbitz travel agency television advertisement? You can get guaranteed gay-friendly bookings. The ad was pretty funny, actually.
I think the difference is that when your grandmothers starting having children at 13 and 14, they were more than likely married and therefore starting their family. Now, that’s not the case. The times have changed because the girls in question aren’t thinking about marriage or family life…they are thinking merely about having a good time. The possible consequences are more often than not forgotten or just cast aside with a “that can’t happen to me” attitude. We tend to live with very hedonistic attitudes in our lives and let it run the way we live in general.
And there, Izz, I think you have put your finger on the problem. The majority of the current generation do not seem to have any idea that there are consequences to their actions. If this is due to an overemphasis on their rights over their responsibilities I wouldn’t like to say, but the minor consequences of their actions which we would have faced seem to have disappeared. Now the first time these consequences are faced they are major, such as teen pregnancy, arrest and prison, etc.
Think of a cliff. It’s as though when we were young there was an electric shock fence set a hundred yards back from the cliff. If we touched it we knew it wasn’t nice and stayed away. But now the fence has been removed and by the time today’s youngsters find out it can be nasty they’ve already fallen over the cliff.
Now, that’s not the case. The times have changed because the girls in question aren’t thinking about marriage or family life…they are thinking merely about having a good time. The possible consequences are more often than not forgotten or just cast aside with a “that can’t happen to me” attitude. We tend to live with very hedonistic attitudes in our lives and let it run the way we live in general.
