Actually, after all I've read about this, and knowing how stupid my peers were when I was a teen, you're what is called an exception. I also notice you said you "never forget" to take the pill and then immediately after, you say you have forgotten maybe once or twice in the past year. So which is it? It can't be both cases. Those one or two times you forgot it are the one or two times you could have gotten pregnant.
I agree with the article. Teens think they are invincible. They don't think about the consequences. They only think in the present. The consequences that await them if birth control should fail are far too great for them to comprehend. Honestly---if you don't already live in your own home, paying for your own food, and going to work to take care of your own self, what the hell makes you think you're prepared to take responsibility for a baby? Teenagers are still living off of their parents. And they don't care what they do because they don't yet know what it means to be responsible for an entire household. You cannot say "I'm responsible for school, therefore I'm ready to take on ten times that responsibility". You need more life experience. Like the author asks: are you physically ready for pregnancy? Emotionally? As a teen, the answer for both is a resounding "no". Teens just want to have fun. They don't think about consequences. Their brains aren't done developing, and in fact good decision making skills are not done developing until a human is over 20 years old. That may seem like just a few years to a 17 year old, but developmentally that's a huge leap. So, unless you don't care about your future and plan on possibly living off welfare, you shouldn't take the huge risks associated with teen sex. After all, honestly, I don't want to pay for someone else's mistakes with my tax money. I'm 21 and I decided to wait until I'm in a successful career before I even begin to think about becoming sexually active. So yeah, you might feel like you want to start in your teen years, but a little thing called self control goes a long way. If I've worked that hard and waited that long, I shouldn't have to waste my money paying for teens who make stupid decisions.
And I'm not just some bigot spitting stuff out. I had to be adopted because my birth mom was 15 when she had me. I was lucky that someone wanted me. I regret her decision for her. She was an idiot for starting that young, and I'm proud to say I never made that same mistake. I have also read another article about children born to teenagers having delayed intellectual and social growth, and I can support that study from my experience as someone born to a teenager. So the consequences not only apply to you but also to your possible child, should your birth control fail. The consequences if your birth control fails (meaning if you mess up, because birth control only fails if misused, typically) are too great to even cross a teenager's mind.
So the question becomes the same one you hear in Sex Ed in school: Are you willing to pay the rest of your life for 5 minutes of pleasure?
If I had a kid, I would make the consequences very clear to them: I'm not paying for their bad decisions. If they get pregnant before they can take care of themselves, they are out of the house and on the street, and they can consider themselves without college tuition or inheritance. I would have agreed with my parents on those conditions if they had laid them out that way for me too, because there is absolutely no reason that it should ever become an issue.
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Actually, after all I've read about this, and knowing how stupid my peers were when I was a teen, you're what is called an exception. I also notice you said you "never forget" to take the pill and then immediately after, you say you have forgotten maybe once or twice in the past year. So which is it? It can't be both cases. Those one or two times you forgot it are the one or two times you could have gotten pregnant.
I agree with the article. Teens think they are invincible. They don't think about the consequences. They only think in the present. The consequences that await them if birth control should fail are far too great for them to comprehend. Honestly---if you don't already live in your own home, paying for your own food, and going to work to take care of your own self, what the hell makes you think you're prepared to take responsibility for a baby? Teenagers are still living off of their parents. And they don't care what they do because they don't yet know what it means to be responsible for an entire household. You cannot say "I'm responsible for school, therefore I'm ready to take on ten times that responsibility". You need more life experience. Like the author asks: are you physically ready for pregnancy? Emotionally? As a teen, the answer for both is a resounding "no". Teens just want to have fun. They don't think about consequences. Their brains aren't done developing, and in fact good decision making skills are not done developing until a human is over 20 years old. That may seem like just a few years to a 17 year old, but developmentally that's a huge leap. So, unless you don't care about your future and plan on possibly living off welfare, you shouldn't take the huge risks associated with teen sex. After all, honestly, I don't want to pay for someone else's mistakes with my tax money. I'm 21 and I decided to wait until I'm in a successful career before I even begin to think about becoming sexually active. So yeah, you might feel like you want to start in your teen years, but a little thing called self control goes a long way. If I've worked that hard and waited that long, I shouldn't have to waste my money paying for teens who make stupid decisions.
And I'm not just some bigot spitting stuff out. I had to be adopted because my birth mom was 15 when she had me. I was lucky that someone wanted me. I regret her decision for her. She was an idiot for starting that young, and I'm proud to say I never made that same mistake. I have also read another article about children born to teenagers having delayed intellectual and social growth, and I can support that study from my experience as someone born to a teenager. So the consequences not only apply to you but also to your possible child, should your birth control fail. The consequences if your birth control fails (meaning if you mess up, because birth control only fails if misused, typically) are too great to even cross a teenager's mind.
So the question becomes the same one you hear in Sex Ed in school: Are you willing to pay the rest of your life for 5 minutes of pleasure?
If I had a kid, I would make the consequences very clear to them: I'm not paying for their bad decisions. If they get pregnant before they can take care of themselves, they are out of the house and on the street, and they can consider themselves without college tuition or inheritance. I would have agreed with my parents on those conditions if they had laid them out that way for me too, because there is absolutely no reason that it should ever become an issue.
July 1, 2012 - 2:33amThis Comment
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