The Realities Behind Young Parenting

Young parents are stereotyped

, probably because some of the worst young parents have proven themselves irresponsible and unreasonable human wrecks. This has deemed it permissible to exercise unwarranted judgment and assumptions against those who had a child at an early age. Allow us to clear the air by clarifying some of the myths, these include:

Accidental Children

Although the assumption that the children of young parents are due to unintended pregnancies can hold some truth at times, it is, however, a reality that a higher percentage of young folks plan for children. Putting off children until later in life has numerous reasons, but getting started young also has millions of reasons. It is a fact that a lesser percentage of young people are reckless, with the greater percentage having the competence to make conscious and educated decisions regarding their life, which often includes the decision of having children.

Children of Young Parents End up in “Broken Homes”

The concept that dissolving a partnership, marital or otherwise, means a “broken home”, cannot be further from the truth. Most divorced parents provide all parenting requirements and some while a shockingly large percentage of married parents are unable to provide any semblance of parenthood. Creating a positive atmosphere for our children is not dependent on staying together. Additionally, a lot of the young couples stay together while most of the older ones don’t.

Young Parents Are Losers in Need of a Purposeful Life

This is just a baseless assumption and would apply to older parents similarly or are we to assume they already have purposeful lives? As much as having kids might provide more purpose to life, the purpose of life is not to have kids, and the younger generation displays this quite effectively.

The Parents of the Young Parents End up Raising the Children

This is a damaging and disingenuous stereotype, which has led to older parents insisting on the consideration of the newborn adoption option by the young parents. Everyone appreciates a little help, especially from family, but whenever young people have children, they tend to hold on to this creation. When older parents let their parents babysit, no eyebrows are raised, why should it be any different for young parents?

Young Parents Gave Up, and Don’t Pursue Their Goals in Life

You must know the old sob line, “I was meant to be a lawyer after college but then, we had this baby.” Well, this is the lamest excuse ever! For a fact, most human beings, and come to think of it, animals, tend to be more aggressive and motivated once they have offsprings. Most humans advance their careers and develop an amazing life after having children since they suddenly have this whole new responsibility, in which if they fail, another life will be devastatingly affected.

Compared to Their Childless Peers, Young Parents Are Less Responsible

This assumption might have stemmed from the assumption that once you get pregnant early in life, you must be irresponsible. Human beings will always be just as responsible as they have to be, which means the more responsibilities one has, the more accountable they get, which is as we said earlier, adaptation. Young parents are quite capable of adapting, maybe even more when compared to older parents.

Having the Life of a Teenage Parent

A young parent is not necessarily a teenage parent. As we have already discussed, young parents, generally below the age of 30, are quite capable of making perceptive and informed decisions. Judging that young parents cannot handle the pressure that comes with parenthood is insane! Young parents are stronger, both in body and mind, and more open to learning compared to older parents, and will quickly adapt to arising challenges. Which is why young parents have entirely different techniques for dealing with parenthood issues, methods that are slowly proving to be more efficient. It is simply the backbone of evolution, adaptation.

Young Parents Have No Idea on Birth Control

Even young parents attended school at some point, and effectively educated on birth control, plus they have had less time to forget this particular education compared to older parents.

Young Parents Are More Responsible Than Their Childless Peers

Having children early does not make young parents disasters, but neither does it give them magical abilities to avoid making mistakes. Both young and old parent mess up, both being as complex and as human as each other.

It is a common inclination by society, that, for anyone to plan for pregnancy and children, they must be well established, both economically and socially. And this is what has led to all these misplaced assumptions concerning young parents.