DEAR CHRISTINE, I am a regular reader of your column. I think it is high time that a parenting group be set up to help teenage girls cope with their problems. I do not have any children but I know what it’s like.
I was brought up in a single parent home where my mother had to be the provider. I believe that more than 80 per cent of the young girls who find themselves pregnant come from single parent homes.
When their mothers speak to them, they do not want to listen. Most of them would not look for work. When the first child comes and the father leaves, they look instead for another man and before you know it, they are pregnant again and the father has run off one more time.
Their mothers are then left to support them and maybe two or three children. When are the young girls going to learn that bringing children into a world of poverty does not help one bit?
They don’t concern themselves about the children’s future. A child needs a lot more than food.
– P.J.
Dear P.J.,
It is kind of you to raise your voice of concern to the problem of teenage pregnancies and the whole irresponsible attitude some young women take toward becoming mothers.
They never seem to learn from the mistakes of others. They continue to fall for the false promises of the men who use and leave them. If these men would at least honour their part of fatherhood, things would not be as sad as it often is.
You speak of children needing more than food. This is true, but many of these innocent ones don’t even get proper meals because of a lack of support. Your suggestion of a parenting group is a good one, but I doubt very much that it would have the desired effect.
It seems that where this matter is concerned, one has to feel to understand.
Since one must not lose hope altogether, I do sincerely hope your letter of concern will catch the eye of the young girls who are now being tempted into a careless way of life, and help them to find the strength to resist taking the oft-repeated downward path.
– CHRISTINE
