#11 My wife and I are playing "good samaritan" to an unwed mother and her child at the moment, trying to help her get back on her feet after being evicted from her apartment by her roommate and her roommate's new boyfriend. She is not the world's greatest mother, to put it mildly. The kid's needs always come second to her own. We're doing our best to ensure the kid doesn't grow up with a lot of emotional problems, but it's not easy.
Among my daughter's circle of friends eleven have children, and only one of them is married. Half of them aren't even sure who the father is. These kids think, "no big deal", but they've just shot themselves in the foot, career-wise, financial independence wise, and several other ways. It's not scientific or anything, but of the 11 young women, only one grew up in a household with two parents. Eight of the 11 didn't finish high school. Only one gave her child up for adoption, and she's pregnant again. I can't think of one of them that has any kind of religious upbringing. Most of these young girls and their children are on public assistance of one kind or another (mostly WIC and Medicaid for the baby). The generation their children belong to will have major issues when they reach maturity, if not before. |
Out-of-wedlock births in the United States have climbed to an all-time high, accounting for nearly four in 10 babies born last year, government health officials said Tuesday. While out-of-wedlock births have long been associated with teen mothers, the teen birth rate actually dropped last year to the lowest level on record. Instead, births among unwed mothers rose most dramatically among women in their 20s.