<p>Whether it is a trend or not, a reminder to parents about prom and sex</p>
<p>Dear Abby: Please help me to warn your readers about an alarming trend happening in the teenage community: prom babies. While driving my daughter to a lacrosse meet with several of her girlfriends, one girl in the car said she hoped this year she could have a prom baby. The girls were discussing two former classmates who had been unable to begin college because they had become mothers at 17.</p>
<p>My daughter told me that several of her friends were considering trying to get pregnant near prom time so they wouldn’t have to deal with the pressures of going to college. I thought this sad trend might be local to our area, but during a class reunion in California, I learned the trend may be nationwide. </p>
<p>Dear Worried Dad: The individuals who should be warned are the young men who will be escorting those young women on prom night. One foolish mistake could lead to a 20-year commitment to support a child before they are emotionally or financially ready. I’m appalled.</p>
<p>Let me get this straight…they want to have a baby, so they won’t have to deal with the pressures of college? Have they considered the pressures they’d face if they didn’t go to college? How much less they’d earn over their lifetime by not having a degree? The fact that they have to support a baby when they’re not financially ready, let alone emotionally ready? The pressures of sleepless nights, groggy days, the fact that they will not be able to pay for things like diapers, formula, the rent? Yikes, you’d think these girls at least might have half a brain cell between them!</p>
<p>read the first line of my post, please…we all know that many kids decide prom night is THE night to lose it…and there are probablly prom babies out there, not planned as implied,so it is an issue that parents need to remember to discuss with the kidlets, urban legend or not</p>
<p>When I was in my early 20’s, I dated a very nice young man… who told me he had a nine-year old son. He was 26. The mom slept with him at prom; by the next year, they had a marriage, a child, and a divorce. Oh, and it was a shotgun wedding, too. Literally. His FIL gave him the shotgun as a wedding present–after the wedding.</p>
<p>This is TOTALLY believable to me. Most of the teenage moms at my daughters’ school LOVE LOVE LOVE to bring their babies in to school for all to admire. MANY of the girls vocalize about how adorable these babies are, how “cute” the preggo girls’ bellies are, and how they’d also like to have babies. After all, they get tons of attention and this attention can be compelling to girls who feel isolated and alienated and not particularly committed to their eductaional futures. </p>
<p>I don’t think that this behavior is confined to prom time, but I can definitely see some of the girls around here having this desire. (remember that we live in an area that does NOT stress college and it is usual for maybe 4-5 out of 450 to go out of state to school and also unusual for most to attend a four-year college). </p>
<p>I met a lady at a class and her grandaughter and 2 of her friends got pregnant at (well not literally at - I hope - but very shortly thereafter - as in after prom celebration/party/orgy by the sound of it) the prom. Don’t think it was planned (the pregnancy - maybe the ‘losing it’ was). This particular girl had a good sports scholarship lined up too. Oh and they were juniors. So sad.</p>
<p>Never heard of this before. It must happen - just like babies happen any other night of the year. I am not sure it is the alarming widespread trend that it’s made out to be. I’m not really convinced that someone who’s never thought of sleeping with anyone before is suddenly going to be inspired after hearing “prom baby.” The trend of teen mothers is larger than just prom night. </p>
<p>Then again, maybe this is what you get from the abstinence sex ed everyone favors so. Ironic, that so called “prom baby” trends coincide with such careful attempts to keep everything but abstinence under wraps. Ironic indeed. We do have non abstinence sex ed, which I’m sure they’re so proud of. The protection/birth control video is so old that the teacher includes a disclaimer that some of the methods described have been taken off the market. Lesson: if you suspect your teen is at risk, don’t trust the school, no matter how liberal the curriculum. Take this facet of education into your own hands.</p>
<p>That’s funny, others seem to think that this would occur more in communities in which college is less prevalent, but I thought prom baby syndrome would have been more of an issue in areas where college was more “just what you do after high school” than a choice to consider. I can’t imagine that in a community in which most do not go to college, a girl would see a baby as her only way out of college when she could just not go if she didn’t want to. In places where everyone goes to college, it might seem more like a baby is the only way out–maybe I’m reading the situation wrong?</p>
<p>When I read the thread title, I was thinking more along the lines of a REAL prom baby. But this incident, that happened in 1997 is so tragic. Apparently no-one knew that the girl was pregnant, and she went to prom, and delivered the baby in the bathroom…</p>
<p>Wow, my mother started to talk randomly about prom babies in the car, and I was like. what the heck is she talking about. I never knew that this existed. Of course I know what happens during ‘prom night’ but I never knew that people would be so desperate to just throw their lifes out and use prom night as an excuse. Why do these people want to ruin themselves. It makes no sense that you choose to have a baby to make your life ‘easier’ instead of going to college. My mother just had a baby [my brother] and I know for a fact that taking care of babies is a hard job. This is absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>I agree with Hereshoping. (Hmmm, no snowflakes down here yet…) This has all the earmarks of an urban legend along the lines of the “blackout baby boom”.</p>
<p>CGM, I’m not actually sure what you’re trying to say. In fact, I’m not sure what language that post was originally written in before it got Babelfish translated into English. I tried translating it into German and back to English, and this is what I got:
Ahh - that’s clearer! My response: There’s sex every night. I’m actually not sure that prom night is even in the top 10.</p>
<p>What I am saying is that many kids think that having sex on prom night is cool and the thing to do, and may not be prepared, etc…so we as parents should probably have a reminder talk if we feel it is necesarry that just because you might feel pressure to have sex for the first or 12th time on prom night, it is your right to say no, and if they are having sex, to use protection and not do anything rash </p>
<p>I am not anti sex, but too often teens will have sex when they are not ready or prepared, and prom night is a night that can add an extra set of pressures to do things that otherwise a person might wait for, or other risky behaviors, like drinknig and driving</p>
<p>do you think there is a reason that there is all this talk about drinking and driving on prom night, or is it just like any other night? no its not just like any other night- drinking, drugs and sex all are heightened in the minds of many teens, and we as parents, well, this time of year, its our responsiblity to remind our kids about responsibility, and not succumbing to various pressures </p>
<p>please, read the previous posts and you will understand my points</p>
<p>as for prom night and sex, it is often the night of the “first time”, of kids feeling the need to go for it, or to have sex and not take precautions, becuase it is a night of big expectations</p>