http://www.clasp.org/publications/minor_parent.pdf
I came across this particular article. It really concerns me. It doesn't allow minors as parents to access needed welfare benefits. It does not promote family preservation. The article actually stated that TANF does not want to reward teenage childbearing. So these young women are left without any help unless of course they live with their parents. No one considers that the young woman's parents may have kicked her out. One of her family members may have caused the situation. Yet she and her child pay the ultimate price in judgement.
1 comment:
Interesting that for thousands of years there was no such thing as a 'teen parent'...as an 'issue".
Even when I was growing up, many people married as teens or had parents who had given birth to them as teens, and this was not considered a problem.
Now, at this time in history, we have more social workers chasing after parents than ever, and more parents seem to fall into the 'incompetent' category.... have we humans changed that much in the past 35 or so years?Are we really that bad..
I think not..but perceptions, beliefs, and technology sure have changed things.
Teen mothers, healthy, fertile, and young are seen as incompetent..BUT the old women who are buying donor eggs , and getting pregnant at age 50, 55, or so...are not seen as a problem.
This aged child-bearing is bound to have an impact. These children are at risk of growing up in a situation where their only "parent' may die early on,the other 'parent' is equally unknown,and they are adrift. they know nothing about their own heritage/ancestry/history.and they will never know grandparents, or other relatives..what will 'family' even mean to them..
yet the government sees nothing problematic about this.
what a concept..what a world.
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