my advice, would be wait a while longer.

it seems like you both have a good future, bright heads on your shoulders..but there is more to having a baby than knowing what stages they go through, how to care, how to be good parents..
children are very costly, and even though all your boyfriend has to pay for is electrical and gas, there is so much more that a baby will need.

do you have a job? what do your parents think about this?

i got pregnant at 18 and it was unplanned, my boyfriend and i are still together, but i would definately not wish this on anyone else, and to plan to have a child at 17? i think its a little crazy..
i love my child, and i dont regret having him, but i would have liked to have been a little older before having a child.

caring for other children and our own are two completely different things.

my advice, is talk to your parents about what you both are wanting, wait until you are out of college, have a job, put savings towards having a baby, wait until your boyfriend finds a better job, and enjoy life while you can.
have you two thought if getting married possibly before having a child?
i dont t hink marriage is important in having a child..but if you both want the same things, why not start planning a wedding instead of the birth of a child?
when you have a baby alot of your freedom is taken away. so enjoy being young adventerous and a young happy couple while you can.

thankyou for your reply. i do understand what you are saying, we do realise that a baby will be expensive & im not being selfish or anything here, but we have big families who will no doubt give us things that we'd need for a baby, clothes, nappys, milk dont have to be expensive but we realise that it does all add up.

i havent talked to my parents about what i want as i know they will go mad and stop me from seeing my boyfriend altogether & i wouldn't want to have to go behind their backs to see him.

We also realie that our child would come before us & our needs, but we can still save up & go on holidays together, go to the beach, go to reastaurants, i don't understand why people think that having a baby means you can't go ot and have fun together.

As for getting married we see that as plan for the future so our children can be there with us.

thankyou for your reply.

Wait until you're living completely on your own and can afford to pay all of your bills without relying on others. Until you can do that, you won't really be supporting your child - you'll be relying on others to support your child, and that's not fair. You shouldn't purposely bring a baby into this world that you can't support. It's kind of selfish.

Wait. If things are great with your boyfriend, they'll continue to be great in a year or two. What's the rush in having a child now? You're 17. You're still a child yourself. (Yes, I know you feel like an adult... but in 5 years you'll look back and think of how young you were.) Finish college. Get your career established. Find your own place to live with your boyfriend. Reconsider this when you're settled and completely self-sufficient.

Your baby deserves the world. Wait until you can give it to them.

We won't be relying on others to support our baby, my boyfriend will have a job, i will have my qualification in May, so i will have quite a well paid job to support us, we won't be asking others for money.

Before when i said abot family giving us things we need, i meant when our baby is born & before that our family would give us gifts, baby bath, pram, clothes, blankets etc.

His house will basiclly be our own, its basiclly just his sister living there.

I also have savings in my bank if we do need anyhting major or extra things to buy if needed.

We will be able to give our baby everything he/she deserves: everything they need, all the love in the world, a loving family, caring parents, a warm house, good food, shelter, days out.

let me jsut tell you now, a baby costs anywhere from..$30,000 and up. and that price keeps going up and up as they get older.
sure you may get gifts from a baby shower, but not all parents are welcoming in the fact of a baby suddenly poping into their teenage daughter life when in their eyes, your a child.
and the stuff you get, thats only like..a baby bath, baby blankets, clothes for the ages of 0-3months tops, possibly diapers, baby toys, jumpers...what about the things they need when they hit 3-6months and up, when they start eating baby food,when you run out of diapers..-my boyfriend and i buy diapers about..every half a month to a month, and my baby drinks formula, i get a new can of formula every month or sooner.-

how are you planning on telling your parents then? just casually bringing it into conversation?
you should talk to them now. not later. it will be worse later.

i hate to break it to you hun, but a baby means good-bye fun!
you dont have the freedom to say, i want to go to the mall now. or i want to go see a movie.
you have a baby to care for! thats the reality, you seem to want to have a baby, but keep up with your social life. but it does not work that way.
the reality is, that when a baby comes into your life, your fun is set on hold. a baby brings alot of different changes. not every baby is a little angel, sometimes its like..well a nightmare..my son was colic[crying all the time] for about..2 almost 3 months. that was not in anyway fun.

my friends used to ask me 'are you ready for this?' and i would say as ready as im going to be, but what i learned, is that you can never truely be completely ready. so many things that you never planned can happen when you have a baby.

and finding a job..sometimes students just out of college dont find a job right away..
you guys should really lay all your cards out first, deal with one thing at a time, get your job, your boyfriend finding his better job, put ALOT of savings aside, TALK TO YOUR PARENTS, think this through MORE, and think about marriage before a child..i would have loved to be married before having a child..
hell i would have loved to be a little older..
i would never purposely plan a child..

im doing the same college course as you im in my 2nd year now. i wanted the same as you but now i am so glad i waited. I would not consider having a baby until you have left college and have your level 3 behind you.

Wait. Parenthood should never be rushed. It is a bigger obligation than you know. I don't understand why so many young kids want to rush into having a baby. The best years of your life are during college - you should focus on your education and getting a steady, well paying job before any talk of a baby. Furthermore, I can't understand so many young women wanting to have babies without marriage. Look, marriage is a committment - for better or worse. Marriage should come before baby - you both need to be committed because once baby comes, it will try even the most loving relationships. Children are not easy and they are not a way to trap a man. My advice? Learn to love yourself a little more, gain more life and work experience & then think about who you want to settle down with. Unfortunately, all too often, teen pregnancy = poverty. Take a trip to your local inner city and see how hard life is for all the single, young Moms out there. Not a pretty sight.

Wait is my only advice. I'm 17, the same age as you are and i was pregnant at 15 and had my daughter less then 2 weeks after my 16th birthday, she is now 19 months old.
A one year relationship isn't actually that long when it comes to bringing a child into the world, trust me there will still be so much you don't know about eachother. My advice when people i know that are the same age as me say that they want to have a baby is.
1. Get a job.
2. Start living with your partner, in your own home not your parent's so that you're paying every bill yourself and if you don't pay the elictricuity bill it gets cut off, you don't pay the rent you get thrown out.
3. Balance your income accordingly.
4. Live together for at least 1 year.
5. Then if you can afford it and are still in a happy STABLE relationship think about trying for a baby.
Once there's a baby dependant on you there's no going abck, that child is YOUR responsibility for LIFE so there is no reason to rush into that kind of commitment at 17.

im not quite 19, i have one 7 month old son and one on the way, my partner and i had been together for near on two years, lived together for most of it and thought we were going to be together forever, he promised hed never leave me, and although my son wasnt planned, we were pleased. At the end of my first pregnancy, he left me. we got back together and then he changed for the worse- i had all the responsibility of the baby-i had a reflux baby that couldnt be breastfed due to allergies, and he was also daylight confused so i was up all night then all through the day trying to study, do the housework and take care of my ex then current and it sucked. i sdont regret my son or the baby on the way, but i really wish that i didnt have to spend $40 a week on formula, $20 a week on baby foods, $30 a wk on medicines, $20 a week on nappies, then theres wipes and transport and emergency medical costs and hospital visits and the hundreds ive spent on clothes because of how fast he grows, and lately the $5 every day on replacing teats because he bites the ends off them no matter which ones i buy. that leaves me with about $40 a week for food for me one my bills are paid! And you cant plan for your bf to stay because theres the off chance that he will turn into a bad egg like a lot of males do-just look in the single and pregnant forum and you will see how common it is!

message me if you would like to talk. Im an 18 year old mommy with a 4 month old son. I was pregnant with him at 17. I have lots to tell you but dont have the time right now, because the baby needs me. so message me and I will fill you in.

Megan