Teen Pregnancy; Parents Fault ?

[Azalee]

How does that not make sense? >.>;

As a person we all make our own decisions. No one can make decisions for you to do something.

[HAcoreRD]

you know you make absolutely no sense whatsoever?

did you skip your teenage years? Home schooled? You never heard/seen any acts of rebellion?

If you're a parent and you tell a teen not to smoke in your house, and the teen smokes, if he sees you smoking in the house he'll do so to spite you.

Does this make any sense? Should I lend you a psychology book to assist in "Monkey see monkey do"?

[Flarega]

How does that not make sense? >.>;

As a person we all make our own decisions. No one can make decisions for you to do something.

Only partly true. Your upbringing, class, and race all influence the decisions you will make. So yes, you technically call the shots, but that doesn't mean the decisions you make aren't heavily influenced by those three factors.

[Azalee]

In my eyes, influence =/= fault. Does that make sense? The fault being put on someone comes from whoever made the final decision... I think. I guess I don't know exactly how to word my thoughts. Haha

[Jefe]

Teens are stupid.

[Ashira]

Conservative society wants to blame the parents because they don't believe kids would want to have sex if the parents brought them up properly. Somehow they hold onto some ideal that either teaching kids abstinence OR not talking about sex at all is going to somehow kill their desire to try it out. This has been proven repeatedly, over the last century, to be grossly false.

So then conservative society tries to quell it in another manner by ridiculing teenage pregnancy, unwed mothers, etc, in hopes this will somehow discourage the behavior, which if anything makes the likelihood of using contraception less, because those involved will be too embarrassed or whatever to try and procure any. Instead of realizing that abstinence is a bit of a pipe dream, and that teaching and providing contraception is a much more efficient use of funding and time than abstinence programs, the attempts are made instead to put a stigma on sex when, frankly, it's perfectly natural. But where much of conservative society won't believe in basic human nature because it essentially stems from a belief in evolution, it's frowned on.

In any case, I feel as long as the teens are provided with the information they need, then resulting pregnancies/STDs etc are the teens' fault (unless they do everything right and happen to fall into that 1%).

If they are not provided with any information, it is both parents' and society's fault - as it is probably society preventing the parent from feeling comfortable telling their child anything; and society perhaps interfering with proper sex education in school. And the parent for just not being.. a parent and realizing that just because you don't talk about it means it doesn't exist.

[Tyche]

I just think of it this way:

father tells kid not to have sex, then he proceeds to fuck mommy that night.

Kid says to himself "If that old shit can fuck, so can I"

Thus, kid fucks out of rebellion.

I touched on this in the Palin thread, but being a parent almost assures hypocrisy. You are going to tell your kids not to drink, and then at the restaurant you'll order that martini. You can tell your kids that sex is bad at 16, but mommy had your child at 17. If a kid fucks out of rebellion, then it's certainly not a parenting issue, the child has authoritative issues that needs to be addressed.

[layoneil]

How does that not make sense? >.>;

wasn't talking to you.

did you skip your teenage years? Home schooled? You never heard/seen any acts of rebellion?

If you're a parent and you tell a teen not to smoke in your house, and the teen smokes, if he sees you smoking in the house he'll do so to spite you.

Does this make any sense? Should I lend you a psychology book to assist in "Monkey see monkey do"?

it's not just your second post, your first one is all f'd up too.

your whole "teenager" blurb places no blame on the actual teenagers, it's another shot at society, everything around the kids are at fault to you except the two kids themselves.

not every kid has to rebel, not every kid is so stupid to rebel in a way which messes up their own lives.

parents shouldn't teach their kids not to have sex and than bang the hell out of each other keeping the kids up at night. some parents definitely should share in the responsibility but ultimately the kid makes the choice. people don't have to be home schooled to have well adjusted childhoods.

"monkey see monkey do" is not automatic. some kids who watch adults smoke and die from cancer actually realize it's stupid to smoke, not every kid thinks "oh shit, that's so cool i'm going to die like that too".

"monkey see monkey do" doesn't excuse that kid from not using a condom, you telling me the kid actually watches his parents have unprotected sex?

[Flarega]

In my eyes, influence =/= fault. Does that make sense? The fault being put on someone comes from whoever made the final decision... I think. I guess I don't know exactly how to word my thoughts. Haha

Do I acknowledge your opinion? Yes. Does it make sense? No.

Edit: And could the OP answer my 1st question about whether its just 13-17 or including 18-19.

[layoneil]

As a person we all make our own decisions. No one can make decisions for you to do something.

this is not completely true. people make decisions based on available information, if someone makes a decision based on faulty or lack of information, it's not completely their fault.

you can't hold people completely responsible for making misinformed decisions, especially children since unlike adults their ability to gain accurate information is much more limited.

[Seraph]

For every choice, a consequence.

I'd say in 99.9% of teenage pregnancies, it is the fault of both teenagers. Doesn't matter if they practice safe sex or not.

Parental blame depends on whether the parents provided the necessary information for the child to make an informed decision.

As far as "society" being blamed, that's a pretty huge cop out. Situation and environment might help influence a choice, but in the end, the person making the choice is still the person making the choice.

It's like pushing the red button. Everyone wants to press the red button. Who else do you really have to blame if you press it?

[Octavious]

Do I acknowledge your opinion? Yes. Does it make sense? No.

Edit: And could the OP answer my 1st question about whether its just 13-17 or including 18-19.

Gdi I've got a job ho! lol, underage primarily, meaning < 18.

[Azalee]

Okay, I guess that I should add that "under certain circumstances", yes, the parents can be at fault. The way that this makes sense to me is if the parents don't educate the child whatsoever. I was viewing this as the parents told the child about sex, the consequences, etc, and the child decided to do whatever they want.

I dunno... I use birth control and have sex when I want, whether my mother wishes for it or not. :/

[EagleCeres]

All of the Above and here's a why/why not list on my thoughts on this issue/poll:

• Parent A - It's not my fault because: I tried my best to teach my kids about sex, drugs, etc. I always supported him/her to do the best in whatever they did. I've tried very hard to keep talking and offering my advice and experience to him/her. I can only hope he/she makes the right choices but will support him/her whatever the outcome is.
  
  
• Parent B - It's my fault, even though I will never recognize it because: Schools are teaching them what they need to know (it's redundant), I'm not going to impose my way of thinking on them (they wont listen to me anyway), I don't know how to relate to them (I'm not in the know/I'm not cool enough), I'm too busy with my life to deal with them (they say they're old/mature enough, let them deal with it), It's their lives they can live them however they want.
  
  
• Teen A - It's not my fault beacuse: I didn't have sex, I had protected sex, I've seen what it does to some and I don't want to be another statistic, I listened to my parents but decided I have other more important things I want to do instead of getting (myself/someone) pregnant.
  
  
• Teen B - It's my fault, but I'll conveniently blame someone else or act like it doesn't matter because: My parents/Goverment can always bail me out, I'm a product of a broken home, I was drunk/stoned, It just feels better without protection, I wanted to have this baby even when I didnt take into account what problems I might have, It's my life I'll live it however I want.
  
  
• Society A - We're not guilty because: we've given out protection freely, we've added education to our schools on this, we've provided resources and people to deal with this, we've expected them to abide by their personal and moral values on this issue.
  
  
• Society B - we are guilty, but you love us anyway because: we glorify sex without consecuences, we let you see the beauty of parenthood without the drawbacks, we need more people keep up our population and workforce supplied, we believe it's Your prerogative to live how You want (as long as you dont break our rules).

[Therin]

I voted and that's all I really need to do, but I wanted to point out one thing from the OP:

I believe that if a teen gets pregnant (or gets someone pregnant) that it is either a result of poor parenting, or lack of teaching in schools.

If a teen gets pregnant it's either the result of poor parenting or lack of teaching rather, than say. . . The kid wanting to have sex?

How can you even say that? x_x

I know that in some cases, there are kids who are very poorly educated on this subject, so I do feel that the parents/schools CAN be held responsible, but I believe that's in few extreme cases. For the majority of the time, the teenager definitely has the mental faculty to choose what's right over what's wrong, yet refuses to do so.

*EDIT*

But where much of conservative society won't believe in basic human nature because it essentially stems from a belief in evolution, it's frowned on.

I have my doubts that, from a strictly evolutionary standpoint, sex for pleasure is natural. I think you're mistaken in assuming that creatures (whether human or animal) don't have sex primarily for procreation. If you're an evolutionist (and I would imagine most people here are), humans are simply a more sophisticated evolution of an animal. I can't argue that humans mostly seek sex for pleasure (this much is obvious, even though sex isn't necessarily enjoyable for everyone, it's enjoyable for most), but I'm pretty sure we're alone in nature in that regard. No other animals seek out sex for pleasure, especially not female ones (I must admit the mental picture is rather humorous, though).

Anyway, not really relevant to the main discussion.

[Flarega]

Gdi I've got a job ho! lol, underage primarily, meaning < 18.

That being the case, I'd actually say no one is at fault because birth rates from teens in that age group have actually been on the decline for some time now. And as it stands, the number of births coming from 13-17 are much smaller than those from 18-19.

[Seraph]

I can't argue that humans mostly seek sex for pleasure (this much is obvious, even though sex isn't necessarily enjoyable for everyone, it's enjoyable for most), but I'm pretty sure we're alone in nature in that regard. No other animals seek out sex for pleasure, especially not female ones (I must admit the mental picture is rather humorous, though).

Anyway, not really relevant to the main discussion.

It was my understanding that dolphins also had recreational sex? Perhaps I am mistaken.

[Kang]

It's definately the teen's fault. There's enough information and awareness on safe sex/birth control nowadays for teens to know what to do.

[Dantrag]

Again, 99.9% of people know by the age of frigin 12 wtf happens when you have sex w/o any kind of anything protecting you. A few times i drove @ 120mph through a 45mph zone. Did i know it was wrong? yes. Did my parents tell me it was wrong? yes. Did they need to tell me? no. Did i do it anyways because i was a dumb teenager? yes. Not nearly the same thing, but same reasoning can be said.

[Demisses]

the whole argument of parent one tells kids not to drink then has a drink is twisted. my mom told me the moment i hit legal age i can drink. she lived her life till she was of legal age and so she "earned it" she waited till she was ready for sex mently and then made the decision to do so and all she asked is if i would do the same. i waited till i was ready at 17 even though i had been on BC since 14 for period shit. then mid way through senior year i came up pregnant which is MY FAULT for not keeping track of my shitty pill. i was 18 the father still had another year of school left which he finished a semester in 3 weeks. He accepted his resposibility our parents offered to help. we both had our eyes open and never blamed anyone. its the kids fault end of the line argument and whatever else. if they blame it on anyone else they are just scared and sheltered. realizing that you are going to be a parent is very frightning no matter what age but even more so when your fresh out of diapers. but really....double wrap the cock and take a super good pill because nothing is 100% cept not having it at all and for this day and age asking a kid with raging hormones to stay celibate is asking ALOT.