Dad at 13

[Stacerita]

 

[NotUrsula]

I remember reading a while back about a community program in Minneapolis that focuses on keeping young dads in touch with their children, and teaching them good parenting skills so as to try to break the cycle. The article said that they had clients as young as 11.

We were discussing the issue of babies having babies at dinner one night a while back, and I asked DS11 if he thought it was biologically possible to become a Dad at his age. He thought that it surely wasn't -- we had to set him straight.

I remember pregnant 7th graders at my school back in 1975. They had all been seeing older boys, but times change.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Kid doesn't look 13 to me.

I do give props to the family for all the positive quotes. Some day this baby is going to read that stuff and won't need to hear that everyone thought her birth was some sort of tragedy.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

OMg! All i can say is OMG!

 

[Darsa]

My DD13 was kissed by her boyfriend last night for Valentine's Day... and this morning I read about this. I just about freaked out.

What I don't understand is what the heck the parents could have been thinking when they allowed him to stay at her house on a regular basis, and even kept a school uniform there so he could get to school in the mornings. ACK!!!

 

[zippitydoo]

Speechless

 

[Rebelmom67]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-13-britain-boy-father_N.htm

I still have a hard time believing that, that little boy, who hasn't even hit puberty is the Dad. Wouldn't surprise me if that little girl had been sexually abused by older men. It doesn't sound like she has led a very comfortable life with her parents.

 

[browneyes106]

The article said the boy is only four feet tall. I wonder if he has any growth or health problems. He looks really young. But a lot of kids at 13 look younger. His girlfriend also sort of looks young for her age. When I was in the 6th grade there was a boy in the 7th grade who had a child with a 16 year old. The baby was adopted right away though.

 

[themilesfamily]

I still have a hard time believing that, that little boy, who hasn't even hit puberty is the Dad. Wouldn't surprise me if that little girl had been sexually abused by older men.

That's an excellent point. Have they done a paternity test????

 

[Todd&Copper]

I still have a hard time believing that, that little boy, who hasn't even hit puberty is the Dad. Wouldn't surprise me if that little girl had been sexually abused by older men. It doesn't sound like she has led a very comfortable life with her parents.

I agree - he may have fooled around with the girl, but he looks very small to be physically capable of impregnating a woman. I'd want a paternity test to make sure she isn't misleading the little kid.

 

[Uncle Remus]

Oh, this is gonna get really good now.

 

[dcentity2000]

I don't get this, physiologically. How at 13 is this possible?



Rich::

 

[shirleyb]

I don't get this, physiologically. How at 13 is this possible?



Rich::

I imagine with a lot of 13 yr olds, my own sons included, it would have been physiologically possible. They were over 6' at 13, so puberty had definitely kicked in.

But this child certainly doesn't look like he's hit puberty yet.

 

[RitaZ.]

I agree - he may have fooled around with the girl, but he looks very small to be physically capable of impregnating a woman. I'd want a paternity test to make sure she isn't misleading the little kid.

I agree with you.

I think the story is bogus. I'd say that someone else is responsible for getting this girl pregnant.

 

[xPrincessSmilesx]

This story is just urrrrgh!

He's not even the youngest father in the UK, about 10 years back another boy fathered twins - but this boy just looks so young!

I is of course causing quite a debate here about sex education - or lack of it. Bu I don' believe it is lack of sex education - I'm in my final year and have had it since year 5, so 9 years total.

It's just parents don't communicate with their kids about sex - it's always the school that is blamed in these situations, wheres the parental responsibility???? If teenagers/tween/kids felt comfortable discussing these issues with their parents and if sex wasn't so taboo, I think we would see a drop in teen pregnancy. In many European countries this has been proven to work, sex is not taboo and is openly talked about = low teen pregnancy rate.

Incidentally I begin my Midwifery degree in september, and teen pregnancy is something I have an keen interest in, the maternity information and support out there just doesn't seem to be available to them

 

[browneyes106]

I'm starting to wonder a lot of things about this story. I'm starting to think maybe the boy isn't the father. But I think maybe they should put the baby up for adoption.

 

[Camicar]

I'm not really sure why this is shocking.

Back when I was a kid in middle school a girl in 6th grade got pregnant -- that would have been 1973. She had an abortion. With parents' permission, principal sent home a letter emphasizing that it is the parents' responsibility to inform their children of the facts of life for their own protection because this girl did not even understand that what she was doing with the neighbor was having sex and that unprotected sex=pregnancy. After this, our school district started an indepth sex ed program which we took in various iterations 4 times before graduating. Believe me, those programs were VERY clear.

The next year a girl in my 7th grade class got pregnant and delivered a baby -- in 1974. I remember it very specifically because she returned to school the very day we started sex ed in health class (2nd iteration of sex ed of the 4 we would have by 11th grade) and the boy sitting next to her turned to her and said, "Didn't listen the first time and this version is a little late for you, huh?"

Following year in 8th grade, one of our (married) science teachers got one of his students pregnant. He did not use a condom and she of course was not on any birth control bec in those days you needed parental permission. Her father went to his house with a gun and long story short, teacher divorced his wife and married this poor girl who never even graduated from junior high. I think of her frequently and wonder what happened to her. He was never even suspended from his job, let alone fired.

Fastforward:
In 2005, a 13 year old boy down my suburban street got his 13 year old girlfriend pregnant. Both were heavily involved in their churches and had gone thru the two sets of sex ed programs at school where they are in fact taught how babies are made and how to prevent pregnancy. THEY HAD THE EDUCATION and chose not to use that knowledge. They were having sex daily after school in his empty house in his bed. No condoms because they didn't have any way to get to the store without a parent to buy them and they thought it just wouldn't happen to them. Boy didn't even appear to have gone thru puberty, but guess what? He had. The girl had an abortion.

Sadly, this is not shocking.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I don't get this, physiologically. How at 13 is this possible?



Rich::

"Puberty", in anatomy/physiology terms, ends for boys when they have the first, um...DIS-friendly term..."spurt" of viable sperm. 13 is the norm. (For girls, it is when a girl gets her period. 12 is the norm.)

I better not get points for that. I did my best to find a non-medical, non-offensive term for *********** (which I had to filter myself - the DIS doesn't even filter it. So extra no-points points for me, I think.)

What most of us call "puberty" would technically be adolescence. The terminology is arguable, but the point of fact remains...

A thirteen year old could become a father. (Which doesn't mean I think that kid is thirteen.)

 

[disneyofcourse]

oh my gosh

 

[powellrj]

I don't get this, physiologically. How at 13 is this possible?



Rich::

I can't believe it when I go to DDs middle school. There are boys there who I swear have to shave everyday. Some of them look older than my DS who is a senior in HS!