Dad at 13: Is Britain Broken?

1. As British citizens are we happy to be portrayed as peple who allow our teens to enter parenthood so soon? There are very limited methods parents can take to ensure that their kids do not become parents. However, Britain has much more to offer than teenagers who are unable to have protected sex or none at all.

2. Will sex education programmes in school help to stop teenage pegnancies? In the past, where there have been such programmes in schools, the number of pregnancies did not decrease. The typical 'teenage mentality' is to brush of the advice of adults.

3. Is the large number of young teens becoming parents affecting the British economy? Teens with children usually do not do well in their educational studies or finish it. They go on to get a mediocre job and if they are unemployed they cause the government to spend money to support them. This money could have been well spent for colleges and universities.

4. What does a 13 year old father suggest about a British teens social life? Becoming a father at the age of 13 is an indication of how teens these days socialise. It is more than likely that he did not conspire to impregnate a girl but that he was acting on natural feelings mixed with the fuel of preassure from his peers.

5. Sexual realtions between teens are pushing limits bordering on 'disgusting' Years ago it was a scandal to see an unmarried girl at the age of 19 pregnant; now it is fast becoming a trend to get pregnant before you reach 18. With each generation, the average age for teenage parents is decreasing.

6. What is really too young to be a parent? The youngest known 'boy dad'in Biatin is 12 year old Sean Stewart who became a father in 1998 when 15 year old neighbour Emma Webster gave birth to his child. Increasingly, teens are having children at younger ages and they are not mentally, emotionally, or financially capable of caring for the baby.

7. Teens are ruining their lives by having children so soon. Many teens think it acceptable to become parents at their age, this idea most likely springs from the idea to have sex at such young ages, probably to 'fit in' with their peers. The majority of teenage pregnancies are not planned, however they are not aborted. The mental, emotional, physical and financial hardship of having a baby especially in early teenage years causes stress and in most cases prevents the parents from achieving more academic goals.

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8. How is a 13 year old expected to care for a baby? In many events of teenage pregnancy the immediate welbieng of the child is not taken into consideration. A 13 year old cannot be expected with or without a partner to raise a child without any probems, it takes the help of family and British institutions such as day cares to help in this task.