12 year old is UK's youngest mother.

Scroll to see replies

Fantastic, ignorance breeding more ignorance. Poor child doesn't have a hope in the world in a family like that, she should have put it up for adoption and given the child a chance in a family who could actually provide a good upbringing.

Reply 61

miscounted_time

Original post by TurboCretin

Are you being serious?

I meant that it seems to be becoming occurrence and people seem to be less shocked as such instances arise.
Badly phrased

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 62

miscounted_time

Original post by miscounted_time

I meant that it seems to be becoming occurrence and people seem to be less shocked as such instances arise.
Badly phrased

Posted from TSR Mobile

Becoming a more common occurrence

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 63

Eva.Gregoria

I know an 11 year old in the UK who's given birth. The daily mail should try harder.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 64

brap man 420

Original post by Eva.Gregoria

I know an 11 year old in the UK who's given birth. The daily mail should try harder.

Posted from TSR Mobile

**** this world

Reply 65

Eva.Gregoria

Original post by brap man 420

**** this world

Are you going to continue crying when you find out that the youngest mother in the world is 5 years old and she is rumoured to have been impregnated by her father?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 66

brap man 420

Original post by Eva.Gregoria

Are you going to continue crying when you find out that the youngest mother in the world is 5 years old and she is rumoured to have been impregnated by her father?

Posted from TSR Mobile

No because a 5 year old who was impregnated by her father has no choice. A 12 year old girl should be responsible enough, it's her parents complete and utter failure.

Reply 67

BeanofJelly

People are very keen to judge and villainise extremely young parents like this, but forget that the reason it is both shocking and sad is that they are children.

For children to make very poor decisions and to lack emotional maturity is normal, and is exactly the reason why children need a greater deal of protection and education than adults, when it comes to both relationships and sex.

IMO, it's nothing but a good thing that their parents are behind them, supporting them, and refusing to participate in shaming and judging - which at this stage (and in fact at any stage) isn't helpful. Obviously it would have been better if their parents and society as a whole could have done more to protect them from this outcome in the first place, but there will always be extreme outliers.

This isn't just some problem of our current times, or just a problem of the UK. Historically, and continuing in many countries today childhood sexual activity and pregnancy has simply taken place within the context of either childhood marriage, or as a massive social taboo resulting in neglect or worse, institutionalised abuse of children who become parents. But children have always become parents. Let's not forget the world's most famous teen mum: the "virgin" Mary. Fortunately our society is doing more to tackle this and pregnancy at an extremely young age is becoming less prevalent in the UK. But we could do more to catch up to other european countries.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 68

HeavyTeddy

Original post by miscounted_time

I agree. I cant believe I'm about to say this because I sound like my grandparents when I was a kid but whatever happened to childhood?

For the kids in my class at that age the height of experience was looking up vagina and penis in the dictionary ( we were easily amused).

Society has gone to **** pretty quickly if you ask me. I worry about what the situation will be when I have my own kids. Clearly pregnancy at 12 -13 is becoming the norm. Insane

Posted from TSR Mobile

Very quickly tbh. We went from a childhood that involved crayons and playing hide and seek, to a childhood involving the latest mobile phones and sexual activity. Then we have people on TSR claiming we're progressing as a society lol.

Reply 69

Lakesx

Original post by bottled

the grandmother is 27 years old, meaning she was around 16-14 when she had teh kid lmao

Yeah I was just about to say that, I think it roots back to the parents, she obviously deemed it acceptable in comparison to her mother. My god , my mum had me when she was 31 not 12, children these days....

Reply 70

Polecat

Original post by TurboCretin

Yes, I'm sure aborting the baby would have improved its life greatly. What?

Not what I'm saying at all, of course that is nonsensical.
Aborting a ball of cells would have best the best and most loving option for all those involved. However that didn't happen. The baby's life will be 'ruined' because it will have a twelve year old as a mother.

Reply 71

TurboCretin

Original post by Polecat

Assuming that the only two options are abortion or ruined life, I'm just trying to understand the principle behind what you're saying. What you seem to be saying is that ruining the baby's life is a poor option, and a better option would have been to abort it. But that doesn't in any way solve the problem of the baby's life having been ruined, it just prevents it arising by depriving the baby of life. That means you're comparing apples and oranges.

Another option which is meaningfully comparable to the mother keeping the baby is adoption. Chances are the baby would go to an excellent home.

Reply 72

Black Rose

At primary school :facepalm:

Reply 73

Polecat

Original post by TurboCretin

Honestly what I think is that there shouldn't be such a negative outlook on abortion. It's the termination of a ball of cells. It's not a life. That's my opinion, I don't want to offend you. And I think that certainly would be the best option, adoption may cause both the mother and child stress in the long term. Obviously abortion can also brings about feelings a regret or depression for the woman if they see it as an ending of life, however I have friends who have dealt with the situation rationally because they do not see it like that at all. If abortion was less of a taboo thing, maybe it could be considered as a reasonable option. (Although I get the feeling you won't agree.)

Of course, what I support helluva lot more is education, support and readily-available contraception to stop these sort of things happening.

Reply 74

TurboCretin

Original post by Polecat

I absolutely support abortion 100%. I just don't think your particular argument made sense.

Reply 75

Polecat

Original post by TurboCretin

I absolutely support abortion 100%. I just don't think your particular argument made sense.

It wasn't an argument, just an outpouring of my thoughts really.

Original post by Polecat

Not only has it ruined the 12 year old's life, it's bloody selfish in that it's a complete ruin of the baby's life.

Sure, 'ruin' is a strong word. But it certainly has damaged the mother's own childhood.
Then my point was, that it was selfish to keep the baby rather than abort it as the poor child is going to be brought up by another child.

Does that make any more sense?

Reply 76

Sunny_Smiles

oh boy, I wonder how she's ever going to pay for it without pulling her innocent parents into it
...oh yeah, of course

Reply 77

bottled

Original post by Ggmu!

Abortion.

Posted from TSR Mobile

bit late isnt it

Reply 78

DanB1991

Quoted from someone else on another thread but they're 100% right

Original post by KingBradly

I understand that teenage pregnancy is a problem but I'm utterly sick of going on about it as if it's something new.

In response to this story I've heard the usual things such as:

"OMG what is this country coming to???" or "Kids are exposed to too much sex these days!!!"

All this stuff is absolute rubbish. Teenage pregnancy has always existed. People in the old days were always having kids at young ages. Sometimes they would just try much harder to cover it up. Do some research into your family tree and you'll more than likely uncover some kind of scandal where someone has had a child as a teenager and out of wedlock.

If you go back to before the 1800s it was often actively encouraged that kids as young as 12 to get married and have babies.

People seem to have this idea that people in the old days were all innocent, sheltered and naive, like characters in a Jane Austen novel.

That may possibly be so for the middle and upper classes of those times but it has never been the case for the working class.

Teenage pregnancy isn't some symptom of modern life. It's a bygone relic that's steadily decreased over the past 300yrs.

I completely understand that teenage pregnancy is much more problematic in this day and age but let us please be done with this stupid idea of it being a sign of the times.