So apparently abortion is the new smoking.

[xDarc]

I'm a diner rat around metro Detroit. It's been a past time of mine for over a decade now. I keep very late hours, chain smoke and drink black coffee. I people-watch. I meet rich and interesting characters. I poke my nose in other people's business.

There's this 18 year old waitress at the Denny's I hang out at who's been dating a 24 year old cook for several months now. She's got a drug problem. He's on probation for selling drugs. They were made for each other. Recently she got knocked up. There's a lot of smack talk flying back and forth across the staff because everyone pretty much feels she shouldn't be having a kid, including the poor cook. But wouldn't ya know it- she's keeping it.

When did this happen? Have you noticed the trend?

I was talking to one of my friends about it tonight, about how much I've noticed this. I said you know what's going to happen- her mother is going to raise that baby. I went on to refer to the past decade as a generation raised by grandparents.

Apparently I'm late on the punch:
http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/NEWS0107/802250364/0/FRONTPAGE

From the article:

"Researchers began noticing an increase in grandparent-headed households with children under 18 in the early 1990s...

In 2006... ...Nationwide, the number stood at roughly 41 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau?s Web site."

41%!?

There are way too many children having children. I don't know what everyone else thinks about this, but I think this is a bit bigger than most of the other buzz issues. America will end up a poverty stricken welfare nation... well ok- but much worse. : )

 

[ace_of_something]

Basically it just means "babies are having babies" is all. More people would rather pass the responsability on to their parents and their parents are willing to take it. Shameful if you ask me. (And you did)

off topic:
Should this be in the Politics section?

 

[xDarc]

That occured to me

Basically it just means "babies are having babies" is all. More people would rather pass the responsability on to their parents and their parents are willing to take it. Shameful if you ask me. (And you did)

off topic:
Should this be in the Politics section?

Well that other guy gets his gun thread in here where they don't actually "debate" gun control even though they talk about legal issues. *shrugs* I'll bet you it gets moved and we go back to our regularly scheduled, spam-your-answer-to-a-simple-question threads which provoke no discussion.

 

[ace_of_something]

That occured to me

Basically it just means "babies are having babies" is all. More people would rather pass the responsability on to their parents and their parents are willing to take it. Shameful if you ask me. (And you did)

off topic:
Should this be in the Politics section?

Well that other guy gets his gun thread in here where they don't actually "debate" gun control even though they talk about legal issues. *shrugs* I'll bet you it gets moved and we go back to our regularly scheduled, spam-your-answer-to-a-simple-question threads which provoke no discussion.

I don't really care either way. Just wasn't sure. I love making sure things are catagorized.

I kind of think the stastic is misleading though. Because a grandparent raising a child is different then the parents, grandparents, and newest generation living all in the same household. My 2nd oldest brother had full custody of his son (his ex took two spoonfulls of 'crazy as hell' with as splash of 'violent outbursts' in her coffee every morning) and lived at home with my parents until my nephew was 3 years old. It never occured to me that my nephew was living in a 'grandparent run household' at the time because my brother handled all the care for his son unless he was at work. (Which case me or one of my other 4 brothers would watch the kid)

It's definitly an interesting treand to watch though.

edit: the story I just told occurred from 1994-1997ish

 

[Kae]

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

 

[ace_of_something]

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

Condom? They work more than 99% of the time.

 

[-Drifter-]

When did this happen? Have you noticed the trend?

Can't say I have. Truth be told, I can't even ever recall meeting a pregnant woman.

 

[Mcupobob]

Ha, I'm the poster child for this, I live with my grandparents so did my cousions, my half siblings, and so on and so fourth. My aunts and uncles and my dad all breed like rabbits without thinking about anything but themselves. My mom wrote letters too me when I was a fetus so I could read them it talked about how she struggled with either having me or not but she did and she does not regrette it (I hope).


My After thought EDIT: Also, here in Cally the smoking crusade has bumped up it probaganda another notch you should see some of the commericals it ridiculously.

 

[Kae]

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

Condom? They work more than 99% of the time.

What about that 1%?

 

[ShadowStar42]

Another thing to remember here is the problem isn't just kids having kids. The cost of living has gone up a lot since our parents brought us up. When our parents were having kids (note, I'm 30) a household could get by with just one salary; someone with a college education could buy a home right out of school and starting wage at almost any 'career' job was enough to support at least one person. These days you'd be hard pressed to find a household with only one income and due to the low starting wages (in America) people are staying in their parents home much longer.

 

[xDarc]

I kind of think the stastic is misleading though. Because a grandparent raising a child is different then the parents, grandparents, and newest generation living all in the same household.

I'm sure not every child who lives in a home where the grandparent is the head of household is being "raised" by the grandparent. But when I was a kid this was pretty uncommon in any respect, even in the poor neighborhood I grew up in. Parents not only owned homes, but most kids even had a a mom AND a dad. holy shit!

That wasn't even 30 years ago. What's it gonna be like 30 years from now? Hope these new kids do a 180.

How's your nephew doing anyway? He should be in jr high now?

 

[ShadowStar42]

What about that 1%?

Hello daddy.

 

[ace_of_something]

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

Condom? They work more than 99% of the time.

What about that 1%?

I'm at work waiting for a case to be called in so I don't really want to find a reliable source to back this up but, I recall learning in one of my many many sociology classess that condoms in testing they actually found that they worked 100% many times over and studies by different entities but due to FDA regulations you cannot make the claim that a contraceptive is 100% safe so they have to claim 99% or something like that.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Another abortion post??

 

[Mcupobob]

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

Condom? They work more than 99% of the time.

What about that 1%?

Better then 0% The schools should really teach options besides abstained. Kids are stupid and when you feed them that crap the won't know what to do in that situation. Thank thor I had my parents teach me that lesson, with them having ludacris amounts of kids.

 

[ShadowStar42]

Another abortion post??

The discussion doesn't seem to be about abortion really but rather about people having kids when they can't afford them and/or multi-generational households.

 

[ace_of_something]

I kind of think the stastic is misleading though. Because a grandparent raising a child is different then the parents, grandparents, and newest generation living all in the same household.

I'm sure not every child who lives in a home where the grandparent is the head of household is being "raised" by the grandparent. But when I was a kid this was pretty uncommon in any respect, even in the poor neighborhood I grew up in. Parents not only owned homes, but most kids even had a a mom AND a dad. holy shit!

That wasn't even 30 years ago. What's it gonna be like 30 years from now? Hope these new kids do a 180.

How's your nephew doing anyway? He should be in jr high now?

He'll be sixteen in about a month he excited about getting a driver's liscense for the most part he's a pretty normal kid. His stepmom has been in his life since he was 4 1/2 though (who he calls Mom) so I think he's been raised pretty normally.

 

[Tzekelkan]

My girlfriend and I (we're 21 and doing college right now) are constantly amazed at how many people we know are having babies and/or getting married at this age... It's terrible, people still live with their parents but decide to have a baby? As if your parents didn't have enough stuff to do as is. Meh, it shows a general lack of responsibility in the teen parents, I guess, if they can't be assed to take care of their own kids.

Note that I don't think it's this generation that's degenerate or whatnot. Every decade there're problems and the battle between generations isn't something new. I know people of all ages who've said that it was better before, but it's just a trick of the memory. It wasn't better before and it won't get worse in the future.

 

[Snork Maiden]

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

Condom? They work more than 99% of the time.

What about that 1%?

Its more like 99.99%. Pill works even better than that (in fact the reason the success rate for the pill drops is because people take it incorrectly). Considering you could use both theirs very little excuse for accidental pregnancy, and hence you shouldnt be scared of sex

Yes this is happening way too much when I was in high school (which was not too long ago atually like 2 years) way too many of my classmates were getting "knocked up" I kinda became afraid of sex after that... how very shameful that I am still afraid of sex... but then again I'm just 19 so maybe it's not that bad after all I think I'm still too young to be having children and all that stuff

Condom? They work more than 99% of the time.

What about that 1%?

I'm at work waiting for a case to be called in so I don't really want to find a reliable source to back this up but, I recall learning in one of my many many sociology classess that condoms in testing they actually found that they worked 100% many times over and studies by different entities but due to FDA regulations you cannot make the claim that a contraceptive is 100% safe so they have to claim 99% or something like that.

I don't really understand how a condom *could* rupture, to be honest. Given how big you can blow them up its not like one in a hundred (or a thousand or whatever) would be slightly dodgy or not used, it'd have to be seriously defective.

 

[wandatheavenger]

I think it's a shame that there are so many too-young women having children. That said, I deem it quite admirable that so many grandparents are willing and able to step in and care for the kids. Especially since the fact that their own children got pregnant so young is, to me, something of a testament to their failure the first time around. A 16 year old who raises a child has no meaningful life experience to work off of when deciding what values to instill in their kids. Their parents however, have many more years of being in the real world and have (hopefully) learned from shortcomings as parents themselves. In the end, if the grandparent as caregiver provides the best odds of the kid becoming a responsible member of society, then go for it.