Maternity leave sought for teen girls

[PsychTau2]

Wouldn't delivering a baby fall under the school's "major medical incident" policy or something like that? How do they treat a student who had their appendix removed? Or some other type of surgery? Seems like that could apply in the pregnancy situation as well (regarding healing medically...bonding with the baby, well...not even all adults get the luxury of taking 4 weeks off from work I'm sure. Some might have to go back to work a lot sooner than that). Seems like doing it that way would even the playing field for all students (how fair would it be for pregnant mothers to have 4 weeks of excused absences when no one else has that opportunity?)


PsychTau

[AKA_Monet]

Medically, if there are no gross complications, then the young woman can resume normal activities upon discharge. For the psyche of the mother and child health, a month is roughly the correct amount of time to build the natural and instinctual cues for human babies--i.e. breast feeding vs. bottle. A child doesn't wean until ~3-4 months for bottle feedings.

Young mothers for the result of youthfulness have children that are at high risk for starvation, illnesses, decreased birth weights, developmental and learning disabilities because this critical connection period is missed.

The reality, if one does not clean up this problem for at least a month and the day-care mandatory service (love that idea), your next problem will be increased risk of sexually transmitted infections with the transmission to mother and infant.

4 weeks is such a simple fix, I would be willing to pilot it for 4 years. Then, I LOVE the mandatory day-care in-service with parenting classes, etc.--Alphafrog for President!!!

[Honeykiss1974]

Alpha Frog has already said everything I wanted to say.

FWIW, my high school has a day care center and it was staffed by the girls/boys who had children enrolled there (with the exception of maybe 2 people who were full-time staff members). Students using the day care services took a class called something Family Life Skills (or something to that effect) that basically involved them staffing the day care center.

[DSTCHAOS]

Whatever's whatever.

The only thing that interests me is that the FATHERS of these children are held equally responsible. As someone said, make them participate in the school child care and do the things that the mothers have to do (with exception for breast feeding, of course).

Regarding the whole "working female" and the Family and Medical Leave Act:
Employers are not receptive to fathers' rights and responsibilities. Sure, most men put childcare and home responsibilities on women's shoulders and/or women take these responsibilities without demanding men's participation. But there are single parent fathers and married fathers who are the primary caregiver. They need to be given the same considerations that mothers are given by employers and the state (and people, in general).

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

Whatever's whatever.

The only thing that interests me is that the FATHERS of these children are held equally responsible. As someone said, make them participate in the school child care and do the things that the mothers have to do (with exception for breast feeding, of course).

Regarding the whole "working female" and the Family and Medical Leave Act:
Employers are not receptive to fathers' rights and responsibilities. Sure, most men put childcare and home responsibilities on women's shoulders and/or women take these responsibilities without demanding men's participation. But there are single parent fathers and married fathers who are the primary caregiver. They need to be given the same considerations that mothers are given by employers and the state (and people, in general).

Agreed....so what do we do with teen fathers?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Agreed....so what do we do with teen fathers?

They need to be doing the same thing the teen mother is doing. If neither is dropping out to get a job, they need to both be doing the parent job. There's no reason why a father of any age should act as if he doesn't have to interact with and care for the child. Take your fasssss butt to the child care center and change a diaper, etc. Being a parent is a full time job and responsibility, regardless of gender.

But that's just me being one of those gender inequality-type people.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

They need to be doing the same thing the teen mother is doing. If neither is dropping out to get a job, they need to both be doing the parent job. There's no reason why a father of any age should act as if he doesn't have to interact with and care for the child. Take your fasssss butt to the child care center and change a diaper, etc. Being a parent is a full time job and responsibility, regardless of gender.

But that's just me being one of those gender inequality-type people.

And as much as I agree with you, we know the reality is that it doesn't always work that way.


I wish there was a way to make these young boys more responsible....

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

And as much as I agree with you, we know the reality is that it doesn't always work that way.


I wish there was a way to make these young boys more responsible....

It doesn't always work what way?

People do what they are taught and allowed to do. Not what comes "naturally."

Tell the fasss arse little boys to go to the child care center and change some diapers and don't take "no" for an answer. Just like they wouldn't take "no" for an answer from the teen mothers. I don't believe nurturing and things like changing diapers are skills that females are born with. So if a female can learn and do it even if they don't feel like doing it, so can males.

[Low C Sharp]

I think we could count on one hand the number of teenagers who got pregnant this year who didn't know where they could get condoms.

This is slightly off topic, but if you ever do peer education or or teach sex ed...you won't BELIEVE the ignorance of a lot of the kids (and of a lot of adults, too, I'm sure). We're talking about not really understanding whether condoms are just for AIDS prevention or just for gay people; not knowing whether hormonal birth control makes you permanently sterile; believing that you can't get pregnant your first time/during your period/before your period/after your period/if you do it standing up/if he pulls out; etc. etc. So the question of where to get condoms is an academic one; there are countless thousands of kids out there with only a dim idea of what a condom IS or why they might need one.
________
CALIFORNIA DISPENSARY

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

This is slightly off topic, but if you ever do peer education or or teach sex ed...you won't BELIEVE the ignorance of a lot of the kids (and of a lot of adults, too, I'm sure). We're talking about not really understanding whether condoms are just for AIDS prevention or just for gay people; not knowing whether hormonal birth control makes you permanently sterile; believing that you can't get pregnant your first time/during your period/before your period/after your period/if you do it standing up/if he pulls out; etc. etc. So the question of where to get condoms is an academic one; there are countless thousands of kids out there with only a dim idea of what a condom IS or why they might need one.

No doubt there's ignorance too; I had a friend who taught health who explicitly taught about sexually transmitted diseases and reproduction, including information about condoms, but when the kids took tests, they had no idea. They'd label ovaries on diagrams of the male reproductive system.

At yet, the pregnant teenagers that I've known knew this stuff, knew where to get condoms or other forms of birth control, but still didn't act on it. All the knowledge didn't really help them. (I'm not a making a case for ignorance; I'm just saying that the folks who say, if only kids knew or were taught differently, they wouldn't get pregnant miss some of the picture.)

I really don't believe that the problem is the kind of official sex education that kids get or even access to birth control. They've got to be mature enough to accept responsibility for having sex, and that's where the breakdown occurs. I'm not sure there's anything other than good parenting that helps, and good parenting is no guarantee.