Top 10 Reasons NOT to get Pregnant- Pay Attention Teens!

Heather, 

 If you are sexually active and you are not using birth control chances are pretty good that you will get pregnant. Most of PC's comments while true are also said in jest.  Because obviously if those very true reasons  don't stop we females from procreating nothing else that I can think of will.

Can I share with you some life lessons I learned the hard way and never shared with anyone? 

I always wanted kids too. From as far back as I can remember I wanted kids. Back when I was a teenager, parents still called on teenagers to babysit, I always had more jobs than I could take. Parents loved me because their kids loved me. Parents hate walking out the door leaving a crying kid behind, the kids I watched didn't cry. At least not when the parents were leaving anyway.  (this isn't the part I never shared, obviously)

A really good point that PC noted was the sperm donor. Do you have one picked out? Does he want kids now too? The biggest mistake in my life was the sperm donor of my kids. We started dating when I was 17, he was 20.  Like most 20 year old males I was more mature than he was, but I figured he would grow out of it. I figured wrong. He is one of those men who will never grow up.

Something else I figured was I didn't need him to help me raise the kids we made, well I was right. I didn't need him, but the kids didn't see it that way. Even if he was a creep who never paid any attention to the kids, he was still their dad and they missed him. It wasn't til they were pretty well grown that they realized he contributed squat to their life, and they realized they didn't need to pretend that he was an important part of their life.  But it hurt them a lot to come to that decision.

Unless your parents are filthy rich (which doesn't guarantee they will want to support your kids) money is going to be an issue. I always figured I would be a stay at home mom.  Something else I figured wrong. The sperm donor had a special way of being unemployed every time I turned around, since my kids were spoiled rotten munchkins who wanted to eat 3 times a day and needed clothes (at least 2 sets)  and they liked having a roof over their head too.  All of these things cost money, money I wouldn't have if I didn't go to work. Which was another expense, I was paying other people to stay home with my kids. That really sucked, but there was no way around it.

Something you will find if you plan on staying with your parents after you have the baby, no matter how well you get along now, it gets worse after you try raising your kid your way, in their house. Thankfully I never had to do this but everyone I know that tried it didn't  last. 

Another thing to conceder, every generation of kids  start doing things way earlier than their parents did. You need at least 2 years of college to be able to help your kids do their homework to get through elementary school. 

The fact that you have the patience  to care for babies who get sick and cry, cut teeth and cry or just get bored and cry and cry and cry, is really important but there is so much more to caring for kids. Why not wait just a couple years? Go to college, get a job, make some money so you are prepared to care for your baby. You can even get a job caring for kids, put that love of children to good use. The very first quality of a good mother is her selflessness. You can start practicing that now. By waiting a few years to have your baby, you will be putting the baby to be ahead of your wants and desires to have one now.  Good luck kiddo.