Kids having kids & unproteced sex

This is an interesting discussion. I agree, that unplanned pregnancies are decreasing (supported by the stats) but large families do seem to be growing in number. Families in the UK are having 3 and 4 children, compared with the 2.1 which was the norm in the seventies. It is clear to me that the support provided by govt is clearly part of this, as other countries where there is little or no support, such as Spain, continue to have an average of two children per family.
Thing is, if you look at the historical factor, these things go in cycles. At the beginning of the twentieth century, families had as many children as god sent, it was the way things went, at least at working class level. Mortality was high among children, but families could still have four or five children easily. Money to provide for them was not really the issue, as people didn't have well paid jobs and they made do.
There have been baby booms after wars, and few children during wars, for obvious reasons.
It goes in waves and at the moment, it would appear that Britain is having an increase in children born.

I think it's not so much the pregnancies or the having sex but perhaps the illusion of it due to the sad ( in my opinion ) of the sexualisation of young girls. These days clothes are quite provocative and they are shown how to pout and put photos on social internet sites and the like. Sadly, lots of children are allowed to grow up too fast.

As a youth worker, norose, are you not someone who is supposed to be educating these young women, not condemning them?

She can't educate all of them on her own, dj, and she has the right to worry about them as well as trying to safeguard them. Don't be so ** censorious of someone with concerns.

Are you saying she wasn't condemning them for their behaviour?
I saw no sign of her trying to educate any of them in her OP, just being critical.

I didn’t read the OP as condemning young women who had children very young in life; I read it more that the OP was querying whether society had let them down in some way. I agree that, statistically, the birth rate for young women has fallen year on year since 2010. My question would be whether teenage pregnancy can be reduced further by educating young men about their responsibilities more. Perhaps someone here, who works in this field, could give more of an insight than I have?

Let's have relationship then sex education.

...instead of the other way around.

And let's make sure that our kids possess a much better future for themselves than becoming a parent before they are ready for a lifelong commitment.

I am saying that she was concerned about the results of their behaviour, and what do you think she does while "Working in youth club, youth supporter at school."? Keeps quiet about the ddangers of promiscuity?

You have never heard that young women are pressurised by young men into sexual experiences and think that their boyfriends will go elsewhere if they don't "put out"? That has been happening since time immemorial.

This is a problem for all ages surely. As I get older I find it strange that women around us are still having unprotected sex and "accidents". In fact a lot of studies show that STDs are a growing concern in the older generations.

It is young women who are living in poverty with limited opportunities and a lack of real care and love in their lives who tend to have babies at a very young age. If you have few choices getting pregnant seems like something you can do and if you have little love or care a baby seems like a way of bringing love into your life. If norose4 is working with young girls she must be aware of the difficulties many of them face. However I do note that her original basis for her post seemed to be the Jeremy Kyle show.
Even promiscuous middle class girls get pregnant sometimes but they are more likely to have an abortion because they see a baby as preventing them from reaching their goals.

Parents are to blame. We live in a day and age where this can be openly and freely discussed with teenagers but parents have stopped parenting by the "book" and now parent by "social media" and what social media says you should do and not do or say and not say. That's where the problem lies.

My problem with teenage pregnancy is that a lot of young girls get pregnant in order to qualify for a flat from social housing. This seems to be their only way of acheiving independence away from the parental home.
In my day we planned a career, to travel and have fun after completing our studies, then get married and have children.
It's a dreadful situation and has been going on for years; 'the flat' is furnished and equipped for them at the tax payers expense and the benefit system continues to finance this little family indefinately, it seems, or until said child starts school or other factors kick in.

Thanks to all those who have understood the subject that I clumsily raised, many of you have expressed what I was trying to say far clearer than I .yes the sexualisation of young girls definitely has an impact exasperated by social media & media pressure. Although we have wonderful young men out there, but there are also so many out there who still treat females as sex objects , not helped In my opinion by the love them & leave attitude of some of rich & famous . Also the continuous adverts about ' how to please your man' there is also enormous pressure on girls to have a certain appearance. Some girls are devastated if the don't have the right look, clothes etc this impacts on their self esteem & therefore are very vunarable to the attentions of a man/boy who basically (as we used to say) wants to get his leg over & quite often they both under the influence of drink.When I worked with a 13 yr old very developed girl , she asked me should she give boys a BJ , took me a minute or two to get what she meant, I told he she should not do anything she didn't want to & about her age , his age etc.to which she replied her mum had been teaching her how to do it, but she didn't really want to.as you can imagine her life was very difficult.

Yes this is definitely happening Legray 22,

Those far off days are long gone thank goodness
Has anyone seen the film Philomena,it was on TV last night,but i saw it before that
It was a very bad time in the 50s, where mst girls had the babies taken off them and often sent abroad without their knowledge,a very sad time i was in tears watching it,
My own sister had a baby in the early 60s, and was sent to a mother and baby home, and it wasnt much different to that film, which was a true story,they had hard work to do and no one was supposed to know, it was shameful
These days it has swung the other way, and yes,some girls do get pregnant on purpose to get a house i know 2 personally, both were given a 3 bedroomed house, with only 1 baby, both have gone on to have 2 more by different fathers who they never see,
No need for it these days, both came from good families

No they aren't legray22 in most areas there is no social housing anyway. I don't know where you live but all over the country there are families living in B&B accommodation because there isn't any housing available for them. Average stay for a family in such accommodation is a year. Where do you imagine these flats are ?

This is happening in smaller towns around the country Trisher, where there are flats & they are allocated on basis of need which rightly or wrongly goes to a predominantly single mum with on average 3 children . Obviously in big cities there aren't any flats available & these poor girls end up going from B& B to B&B perhaps these young peeoples experiences will encourage them to assist their children not to go down the same path. That was my original point really , about have we let young girls down where they believe their only life style choice is to have a baby?

...All this admittedly some years ago but it shows the mind-set and desperation.
One of my ex-students with 4 known sibs ' same mother different father' turned first to drugs at age 15. She was housed near a chemist's shop so she could pick up her leagal supply first thing in the morning.
Next time I saw her she was pushing a small baby in a pram.
'Why, oh why?'
'I wanted something to love and they wouldn't let me have a dog in the flat.

Does all this free sex now mean that family trees are no more!!?

Norose I understood what you were saying. I feel sometimes intimidated on this site I've learned to be careful in what I post as some jump on you very quickly. I'm not a brain surgeon or a mathematician just a gran who observes life and sometimes want to comment on it on this site without being shot down in flames. I'm of a happy nature but do feel others may struggle feeling this way.

I would have been more terrified of my parents reaction had I announced I was pregnant as a teenager than of having a child! So I did the obvious thing and used the birth control pill.

The pill has been around since the '60s and I'm guessing that there was an unexpectation that unplanned pregnancies would drop dramatically.

I simply can't comprehend why girls make one 'mistake' and then make perhaps a couple more, frequently with different fathers. It's the babies I feel sorry for.

Being back marriage!

Sadly many of the (reducing numbers) of young women having babies without the support of a caring partner are children of the same.
If it appears the norm in your situation to have a baby/babies by different transient men then it takes great strength and maturity to do differently. Many of course do reject that.

Many young people are growing up in situations where aspiration is non-existent. Poverty is not just financial. I have worked with many families who did not see any value in school/education, other than a free child minding service. Even in those families with a reasonable income but low educational achievement were not always 'aspirational' for their children. They were happy if they were not causing any sort of .ripples. It is a complex situation but I strongly believe that it is not a new situation. We are just more a ware of it now because of appalling shows like Jeremy Kyle (which I have seen parts of on 2 occasions)

I've always been aware of the problem. I've worked in schools where there were mums scarcely out of their teens. Some of them were aspirational and one school was working with the parents of all the children to help them try to raise their standard of living by offering access to training and qualifications. Of course recent cuts will impact more on these people than any others.

Look, norose4, you started a thread based on a bit of Fake News. All you can really do is back down gracefully and admit you were misinformed. Then we can have respect for your future opinions and all be friends.

trisher I know that very few of those excellent 'family' support programmes, access to training courses etc. are still running, especially since the big cutbacks of children centres and local authority education departments.
I know some people find it hard to appreciate that there are parents who need help to learn play with their children etc. Parenting is not always instinctive. I think many of us learn the basics through our own parents and refine through experience.