Nope, felt the same - what decisions others make about what age to have children doesn't effect me, so I don't care.

You must be psychic, then, because every mother, regardless of age, feels differently about motherhood in general after she's actually had a baby than before.

I wasn't a teen mother and after having my baby I thought, "How the hell do these kids do it?!" I find it hard enough now and I am 27 and happily married. I think I'd have resented the changes I'd have had to have made to my life if I'd had a baby as a teen.

She didn't ask about motherhood, she asked about teen pregnancy.

I felt it was none of my business before, and I feel it's none of my business now. A pregnant teen's decision to continue her pregnancy has no effect on me, so I have no input on it.

Ok, I guess I misunderstood her question. Thanks for the explanation.

I never really thought about it before I had my son. I guess I didn't have an opinion on teen mothers before,now that I am a teen mother I have so much respect for them.
I know what they go through because I am going through it myself.
I don't think that many girls will have an opinion on teenage mothers til they become one.

I don't think anyone thinks being a teen mother is easy or that it doesn't take a lot of work. If anything it is just the opposite.

sweet_mom thank you1 thats exactly how i feel about the whole thing
i was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way

Suzy, you honestly never thought about it beforehand? I didn't realize that. I got the opposite impression, that you had it all thought out in advance, etc., etc.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding this whole thread. It's very possible.

I didn't think about it much before hand. What I did think went something along the lines of having someone to love and someone to love me forever, unconditionally. I wasn't aware of the reality of being a mom.

I think, having a grown child now, I have a completely different perspective on it. Would it be something I wished on anyone? NO. I certainly would not wish it on my children because there is so much time to become a parent and so little time to actually be a kid. Going from barbies to babies in a few short years... there should be more to life.

Sure, I'll be 'young' when my kids are gone, but that is different. I won't be a kid. I'll not have the prom (who knows if I would have liked it!) or a high school graduation, no college dorm living for me, no kicking it around Europe for a summer, no living on the edge of my seat - I just got to be a mom.

You can say that you don't want those things, and thats great - but not ever having had the opportunity to experience them is something entirely different than choosing not to do them.

Plus, it totally sucks when EVERY weekend when all your friends are out on dates and doing movies and stuff - you are stuck at home with a baby. I love my son, but I also would have enjoyed those things as well.

until i was about almost 16 i never thought anything of it at all.
i never thought about teens getting pregnant. maybe because i had never seen it before? like at school and stuff,no one was pregnant or anything. i didnt know anyone under 18 who had kids. so i didnt really have an idea of it.
i never thought that i would end up pregnant as a teenager no
i knew i would end up with kids but i didnt think it would be at 16.

i never thought it was "bad" or "wrong" or that teen parents were "bad people"

i just didnt think anything of it i guess. i meen i knew kids were haveing kids (has anyone read that book? kids still having kids? i love that book!)
anywas i just never thought it'd be me

I never thought I'd get pregnant either. Jacob's got low sperm count, we used a condom, and I was on the damn pill.

Fate was pretty damned determined to give me Jayden, I guess XD

How did Jacob find out he has a low sperm count? Why did he have fertility testing so young?

Thanks for that detailed answer. I understand where you are coming from a lot better now.

I was 18 when I had my daughter. I love her with all of my heart and I wouldn't give her up for the world, but there are lots of things I would change if I could.
For example:
Being flat broke all the time. Not even having enough money left over at the end of some weeks for a Happy Meal.
I wished I could have been around more, but due to having to work to put myself through college I had little options. The welfare route was never for me.
There were so many things I missed. Dance recitals, T-ball games, daycare parties, I could go on and on. It seems I was either at work or school. I regret that my daughter spent more time with my mother than me.
I would have never never let her have any contact with her deadbeat jerk of a sperm donor ever!!! She never would have sat on the steps or by the phone crying over someone she never knew.
And I will admit there were times that I really wanted to go to a concert or a party that my friends were going to and I couldn't. It made me sad

I don't think teen parents are bad. There are quite a few that are wonderful and responsible parents. They think they know what to expect and they are doing what they can to make it work out.
I just think some teens don't realize that kids are a huge huge responsibility. They are not like that baby alive doll that can sit in a closet when you are tired of playing with it. They take so much time, energy, and tons and tons of love, and they are there forever.

I made him get tested for every STD in the book before I slept with him, and they did his sperm count at the same time.

Wow. That is unusual. Not the STD check, the sperm count. That is rare for a doctor to test someone so young who hasn't had an issue with fertility and who wasn't even trying to get pregnant.

Good for you.

before i found out i was pregnant, i thought of teen pregnancy as an irresponsible thing teen girls did or let happen. babies are expensive, how could a teen who is basically still a child themselves raise a new born?
i've always been against abortions, but never in a million years thought i would get pregnant as an 18 year old. i have some friends who are teen parents and they say it is a joy but also a struggle, as is anything really in life...but my views on teen pregnancy deffinately did a 360 when i found out im expecting.

krystine how did your mind change so fast? if you felt it was irresponsiblte then what made you choose to go through with pregnancy?

not trying to pick on ya or anything im just curious to know how you feel about it all; since its so different from my perspective