Anyone else agog that this baby-faced twelve year old boy got his fifteen year old girlfriend pregnant and is now a dad at thirteen? Britain, and Scotland in particular, has one of the highest teenage pregancy rates in Western Europe. A lot of money is thrown at education and prevention programmes to try to ameliorate this situation, but the statistics have not dramatically improved. So I'm stepping up to the challenge.
Sure, if you have a baby when you're a teenager you might get your own council house, but it'll look like this:
Bookcase emptied, cushions removed from couch and thrown on floor, the contents of two toy boxes made into a towering toy pyre. Have a closer look, Maia is even playing a celebratory tune on a toy saxophone.
Like a cup of coffee or tea? In the time required to make one, your children will do this to your living room. Wondering what they're doing over in the corner of the room? Emptying the CD rack. But at least they're doing something together, they've found a common interest. Because this is what their interaction normally looks like:
Last time I saw that hold, it was in an Ultimate No Holds Barred fight. But don't worry about her, she wins more often than not...
So if you think that parenthood will be like the top picture, where you can blissfully play your Playstation while holding the baby, that'll last about two weeks. Then you'll be lucky if your Playstation even works after a piece of toast has been shoved in the slot. And the controllers are missing. And the rules are suddenly too hard due to your sleep-deprived baby brain.
I WISH my house was as tidy as yours after the advent of children! I haven't been able to see my living room floor in a very long time, I *think* I have carpet in the kids' bedrooms but I can't be certain and we don't watch TV anymore because someone scribbled on the screen with a permanent marker which I haven't worked out how to get off.
ReplyDelete*sigh* And I'm having another one.