I personally frequently remind my 15 yr. old daughter about the pain and agony of child birth. About the "wonderful" changes it causes in your body. I love to regail her with the birth of her brother...15 hrs. of labor, tearing of skin, the epidural that didn't work, pushing out his 14 inch head along with his right hand/arm that was tucked beside it.

I also remind her that I have HAD my kids. So, if she ever got pregnant, she would have the baby and either go thru the agony of giving that child away. OR, she'd be responsible for the baby. Meaning, she has NO LIFE! Mom and Dad aren't babysitting so you can go to PROM...Nope, baby needs it's mommy!

Yeah, I'd be a hard ass! I wouldn't think twice about it!

OH. MY. GOD.

I'm so stunned I can't think of anything to add.

Your idea reminds me of Henry Fonda ("Yours, Mine, and Ours"--the movie based on a true story about a widow and widower with 18 children) telling his daughter to tell her teenaged boyfriend, regarding love, that "This is what it's all about!" while diapering a baby during a moment of complete chaos.

Whatever happened to:

First comes love.
Next comes marriage.
THEN, comes baby
In the baby carriage!?

Invite them to clean up a diaper explosion where poop is absolutely everywhere. Let them clean up a child and his sheets over in the middle of the night when both mother and child have a stomach virus. Let them spend hours in an emergency room waiting to have their child stitched.

All great ideas, if only they would work. Seems to be a mentality out there among teens that having a baby means having someone to love and be loved by, because a lot of girls TRY to get pregnant.

"School officials are not sure what has caused so many pregnancies. . . ."

I see a problem right there.

Wow! 1 in 7??? That's absolutely ridiculous.

Obviously the plan where oral sex was supposed to be an alternative to intercourse has failed- at least I don't think you can get pregnant that way, can you?
Our schools were actually offering sex ed that included "outercourse" as happy safe sex. ARRGGHHH! Just don't get me started. Ohio is very close to Michigan.

EEEeek! Why did I let my husband move us to Ohio? Must hide the girl.

**scurries over to Mapquest to find where exactly Timkin is**

A brief overview of my day yesterday. Holy crap.

The schools here make the girls take the fake "baby" for a weekend.And let me tell you,they can tell everything you do or don't do with that baby.Some of the babies don't like to be on their stomacs,so they start crying every time you turn them over,things like that.My friends daughter had to keep it back last yr,and she couldn't wait to get rid of it.It would cry in the middle of the night to be fed.lol.She wanted to put it in the garage.

I've actually witnessed teenage mothers going to other teenage girls and telling them how much fun a baby is! How the state will take care of you, and how they can't wait to have another one!

Why can't we just issue high-school wide birth control?!

A buddy of mine at work actually sent me this story yesterday because this school is in his hometown. He's obviously beaming with pride.

Yeah, I could think of lots of things to add to that class. The only problem is that you'd have the kids there 24/7/365. Parenting ain't no cell phone plan: no nights, no weekends!

From a different perspective: Male.

In High School, mostly the latter years, there was one activity which topped the list of all the fun and crazy things we did or strived for. Yep, it was to have sex. Having been there, and in lots of company, I can understand the manipulative nature of the High School male to achieve his top goal.

Girls are generally emotional WREAKS in High School. Within 30 seconds, and not necessarily during THAT week, a girl can go from Polly Purebred to Exorcist! As dense as a High School boy is, that is something we seemed to learn to work to our advantage.

Now that my youngest girl is 16, I have openly threatened to castrate any guy that touches her and publicly display the jewels on my front door.

Unfortunately, I still recall the audacity I had at that age, and know the seriousness of my threats won't penetrating their thick single minded heads.

This is what happens when teachers aren't allowed to teach sex education.

Uhm, how about having no sex.

But I realize that's unrealistic in this day and age.

How about using birth control properly.

How about having mandatory babysitting classes. Helps out the community and reminds these girls of the consequences.

How about building up self-esteem so girls don't confuse affection with male hormones that only have thing on their mind always.

How about keeping one's knees together.

I hate to say it but we are facing it with my godchild that comes to stay with us. She so desperately wants a baby. Then I leave her with my friends children and mine and...she changes her tune to the key of...NOFREAKINGWAYCANIHANDLETHISIAMINHELLWITHNOWAYOUTWHENARETHEYCOMINGHOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 in 7???? Wow, they need some different extra-curricular activities in that town!

When they can't teach sex ed?



Oh please, like there's a high school kid in America today that doesn't know how a girl gets pregnant.



So what was it? Did you try some different kind of food recently?



This is what happens when you tell kids sex is the end all be all of life, and there's not a lot you can do to control your urges.

So often I see people saying things like "How can pregnancy be prevented?" and then there are the usually rolled eyes "Stop having sex, dumb a$$!".

Problem is that for millions... I repeat *MILLIONS* of years genetic evolution has created an urgent imperative to reproduce in humans, and in all other forms of life on the planet. This precedes even the existance of humans on the planet.

Abstinence works for some, but you are fighting a DEEPLY held instinct, and backhanding the seriousness of it all with a shrug just won't do for a societal answer.

My answer is "free Norplant for everyone who wants it". Esp for kids and those who are in poverty. And before somebody gets all "Eugenics" on me, realize that Norplant:
o Can be removed, allowing reproduction within a couple of months of removal
o Has fewer side effects than most other forms of birth control
o Actually reduces menstrual flow and alleviates many of the symptoms of PMS (craming, pain, bloating, etc)

It won't stop HIV, obviously, but that is another seperate problem which merely coincidentally converges upon the genitals.

If someone won't use protection regularly, they need to be shielded from both HIV and from unwanted pregnancy. A condom addresses both, but a condom has a user-failure rate that is very high (ie: Many people fail to *use* it!)