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.

Good post Jon. Added as a sticky.

Marc

thats why i prefer to have kids:

1. when im married (any other time requires a tool wrapping)
2. when i have alot of money (IF my wife doesnt spend it all :|)

I've seen the sad side of raising kids right after school. Trust me from my own experiences and my sister-in-law's experiences, it is WAY better to wait. My sister-in-law got married at 16 cause her family didn't believe in out of marriage births. It was very hard for her and she ended up dropping out of school. 3 girls who were in my grad class were also teen parents, they're still struggling or have had their kids removed cause they can't finance things.

with all that said...people still do it. And they forever will, and i doubt it is intentional.

That is all i need to know
*will never have sex again*

i highly doubt that

Teens are curious & experimental and hate listening to their parents when it comes to a lot of things. I know my brother was quite the rebel, I spent too much time in computers, music, science & sports to be a rebel. I'm sure a lot of people will see this and ignore it, some will think seriously about it. How you read it is up to you. Being a parent who got into kids early, I'm finding the hard way what happens if you don't have the finances to support you.

A few silly sayings to make one think..

Don't be silly, protect yer willy.
Virginity is like a bubble, one prick = all gone.
1 + 1 = 3 if you're not paying attention.
A male produces 10 million sperm per shot, only takes 1 to get her pregnant.

Sorry if I'm coming across rather strongly on this, you may think it's silly now, but 8 years later, I'm finding the serious consequences of not being financially stable. I'm in court fighting for my kids cause the government doesn't feel we're good enough to deal with a special needs child with a brain development disorder.

i dont know about ne one elses feelings here, but i feel strongly with your opinions. I agree with all the things you said, and i wish you the best of luck during your hard times.

believe it or not a lot of teen pregnancies are intentional. i'm not saying that everyone is but many are for no other reason than teens want a kid. why? mostly because of depression or family problems. if you feel depressed or like you have no one in the world that cares a lot of girls decide to have a baby because they do depend on you. they need you and can't survive without you. it's hard to explain but it does happen and you shouldn't judge those who do it because yes it is a bad decision but at the same time they could be being beaten or mentally unstable or verbally abused. it makes them feel better at the time until they realize what they've done. we all make bad decisions, some worse than others but even if it is by choice it could be a lot worse and it could actually be helping them.

hey, i agree with you. i had a girlfriend that wanted a kid, she didnt understand that would just make shit worse, i never understood y some girls do that, it doesnt help ne thing!!

you never will understand it if you don't already. it seems like it will help. like someone will finally care and it will make everything better. but it doesn't. they just aren't in their right state of mind.

Big issue that can be seen in my highschool, majority of the girls from our highschool that got preg. are of the freshman class. Just today i saw a girl and a guy with 2 kids still in the teens. Its sad, and a hard truth to accept.

The only thing that stuck me in the wrong way about the 2 kids is that these two kids didnt learn thier mistake the first time it happend.

As bad as this may seem, in third world countries where parents have been killed by weather conditions, it is common to see the selling and trading of 6-15 year old girls.

yea, that kinda shit happens all the time here too. only usually it's like 12-14 year olds more so than the high school students. which i guess is good and bad. good that as you get older you supposedly gain more knowledge and bad in that the dumb fucks that got pregnant at 12 didn't have a clue in the first place.

that is ridiculous. Is it rampant, or just a few?

Ok, while some of you do have a good point especially the first post the rest of u are full of shit. Everyone is talking from second hand eaperience not first. Yes a lot of moms do have a hard time but if you ask them (Especially when it was planned) they will tell you they would not change a thing. My best friend has 15mth old, and i have lost three babies due to miscarriage. She would not change a thing and the only thing i would change is that i wished that they would have lived. I have another friend who is pregnant and she agrees. Well i'm done griping but just keep in mind all mothers no matter how old they are get frustrated with their kids and says things that they don't really mean. Don't take everything that is said to heart.

How about a few reasons to use protection? Teenagers are always going to have sex, you can't change that. You can change the rate of teenage pregnancies

That is so true.

you have 4 kids... i hope your not really young...

wow! and to think how many people still do it. It's called having brains for one thing if u ask me!