Originally Posted by Pepper-Tech

I'm not a teen parent, but I've been to school with many and have a sister-in-law who got married at 16 cause her family didn't believe in a baby being born out of wedlock. Here's a few reasons to wait until after you're married or at least out of school before having a baby. I am a parent with 2 kids, a daughter who is 7 and a son who is 6.

*WARNING* The following may be shocking and could scare pregnant mothers.

1. Diapers .. $10-15 per WEEK sometimes

2. Formula .. If unable to breast feed, you're looking at $20-30 per case for just barely a week of formula.

3. cloths .. even 2nd hand clothes can rack up $500+ for the first year just to keep up in sleepers, pajamas, day clothes, shoes, etc.

4. strollers .. $50-200

5. Babysitter .. if you need someone to watch your baby so you can try going back to school you're looking at a LOT of $$ there, unless your school has a student parent program. Our local high school does, but even with it, some never make it to graduation

6. School .. are you going to be able to get up at odd hours to feed your new born baby and focus on school? Most teen parents that I went to school with dropped out until their child was 2 then put the toddler in daycare to try going back and finishing. By then they forgot a lot and barely made it. My sister-in-law got lucky and did make it but 3 others in her class didn't.

7. Your parents .. are they prepared to have you there with a child or are they going to force you out on welfare until you can get a job and deal with kids?

8. FINANCES .. how are you supporting yourself and the baby? Do you have a boyfriend who's helping or are you on your own?

I know when my daughter was born we were spending up to $200-300 per month to keep her going and that's on a welfare budget. Are you prepared to shell out that kind of cash to bring a baby into this world? Are you psychologically ready for this huge responsibility? Are your parents going to support you? Is the father going to support you? Are you ready to do everything it takes to ensure the health of this baby to make sure it stays out of the foster system? Do you have enough medical coverage to keep the baby health? If not, do you have the finances to cover medical bills, prescriptions, cough medicine and stuff?

One other super major point you can NOT forget.. DON'T DO DRUGS, DRINK OR SMOKE WHILE PREGNANT IT WILL HARM THE BABY.