More on Young Mamas

Thanks LS for these thoughts on my baby-mama rants. The comments are getting lost in earlier pages, and I wanted to give a fair response:

"Procreation, women's sexuality, morals, politics. the conservative government doesn't want people to have babies out of wedlock, and doesn't want women to have access to abortions, and doesn't want easy-access birth control, and doesn't want to support single moms. no wonder kids are having more oral than intercourse these days.

Anyway, i think hardly anyone gets a "fair shot" these days. my mom had me when she was 20 and raised me on her own... but life just kind of spills out ahead of all of us and we have no choice but to make the best of it. i guess i took exception to what you were saying because i identify with those kids and I have to believe that i've turned out okay. the alternative isn't an option" -- Lucky Spinster

Point taken. I know, I can be an opinionated, self-righteous fuck sometimes. I tend to only see things from my personal experience.

But what I will say is this -- these kids in West Virginia were fourteen when they started having babies. There is a huge difference between fourteen and twenty. One of the women I worked with on the show had her first child at nineteen, and had worked her way through college while raising her son. I bow down to such gumption. She is a fabulously cool human being and her son is smart as a whip.

I was spoiled by my experience of having two parents who thought about every decision they made when it came to their children. I never had to parent my parents, and it was only in my early twenties that I realized how lucky I was to be in that position. If anything, it may have made me too emotionally dependant on them.

I also bring the experience of being raised by two teachers who had to pick up where many parents who, really, were not completely committed to parenting had left off. Especially as my parents neared the end of their teaching careers -- in the late 1990s -- some of the stories they heard of such devastating situations at home were both heart-breaking and enraging.

I sincerely hope that these kids get the chance to see that there is life beyond the Eastern pan-handle of West Virginia, and turn out to be smart, vital, interesting human beings like you, LS.

Or find fulfillment and happiness staying close to home. That is the same I would wish for any child.