How should Americans attack teenage pregnancies, and change it from being a cris

1. 63

   RKHenryposted 14 years ago

   How should Americans attack teenage pregnancies, and change it from being a crisis in America?

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2. 75

   pageantgirl31413posted 14 years ago

   Parents need to step up for one. Too many parents are so busy with their own lives that they aren't paying attention to their kids. I was so scared of my mom that I was out of the house before my first time. People also need to start fighting what is being shown on tv. If you watch the station with Gossip Girl while children's shows are on, they are showing commercials for gossip girl with sex and kissing in them. It's too easy for teens to get abortions anymore. People will pay for a teen to get an abortion and their parents don't even have to sign a release form although parents have to sign a form for a field trip. I personally think that each school should bring in some real babies for kids to see and take care of. Or require them to work in a daycare for a day. That will change their mind right away.
   
   Teenagers need the sex talk earlier now. Most kids know what sex is by age 10 but the average for a parent to talk to their kid is 14. That's at least 4 years of their friends telling them about sex.
   
   There are so many things that we all could do but I think the main thing is more trust between the parent and child. If the child is willing to ask more questions, they will know the truth about things.

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3. 68

   ledefensetechposted 14 years ago

   Parents need to be parents.  Right now, they either don't pay attention to their kids or try to live vicariously through them.  Or worse, try to be their "friend" rather than their parent.  Most of the kids I worked with managed to avoid pregnancy because we, as their staff, spent time with them, talked to them and by sharing our life experiences were able to convince these kids that having kids and getting pregnant was a huge responsibility. 
   
   The biggest thing that helped us was the fact that many of these kids came from broken homes or other bad backgrounds so it was easy to show them how, by not taking sex seriously, they would just wind up doing to their kids what their parents were doing to them.

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4. 0

   Starmom41posted 12 years ago

   From what I've seen in recent years, there are some factors that contribute to this problem.  In this area, for example:
   a)  it is not considered negative. 
   b)  adoption is not presented as an option.
   c)  "parenting' isn't a verb."  meaning they get the "benefits" of having the babies without the everyday hands-on responsibilities. 
   
   I think if there's to be any reduction in teenage pregnancies, these points need to be addressed and reversed. 
   
   I'll add- in this area, anyway- these "approaches" are not the faults of teens- it's what they're getting from the older generations.

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