First Comes Baby, Then Comes Marriage?

I am a father. Yes my babygirl was born premature, and only lived for one day, but in the 5 and a half months her mother was pregnant, I knew that being a father was absolutely NO JOKE! Unfortunately, it seems as though the responsibility of being a parent has become somewhat of a joke. The most glaring example is the "Octomom" Nadya Suleman. The Octomom is the woman in Los Angeles who, though she already had six children, decided that it would be an ingenious idea to implant herself with eight embryos. Yes, I understand that in-vitro fertilization is not an exact science, but lo and behold, all eight embryos were viable and survived to their birth. So now this woman has 14 children.

If that weren't bad enough, Ms. Suleman is an unemployed single mother living with her parents. Children are expensive as hell. No, I didn't get the opportunity to spoil my babygirl, but I have had a front row seat to spoiling of my nephew. (My brother's son). Boy, oh boy. I always crack jokes with my brother and say that the reason he might not have any more kids is because he can't afford any more. And that's just one. Multiply that times 14. How the hell does this woman expect to raise those children on her humble unemployed salary? I know, set up a website, and ask people for donations! If reaching out to the public at large is your major means of supporting your children, maybe you don't need children!

Since then her website has been shut down. This fact was not a publicized event. I believe that she probably wasn't really raising that much money. Would you donate money to her? Even if I had the money available, I wouldn't give her shit. I consider myself very charitable, but why should I feel guilty for the fact that there's a woman who's so irresponsible that she "chose" to give birth to more children than her finances could afford her? Personally, I believe this woman is mentally unstable. When we first heard this story, I'm sure that many of you thought she probably did this for the publicity. Though that may have been a part of her motivation, I think its more so that she's just crazy. Some crazy people talk to themselves, others have hallucinations, this woman, for some reason, continues to have more children. I wish those children the best. Due to my experience with my daughter, I know that their recovery will be long, and tedious. I pray that the neonatal care that they receive is top notch. Unfortunately, I don't believe this is the last that we'll hear of this story.

Now from the ridiculous to the sublime. I turned on the television yesterday, and watched a news story about a 13 year old boy who is now a father. The first thing that I thought was "you have got to be shittin me"! I'm 30 years old now. 13 wasn't that long ago, so I can vividly remember that age. When I was 13, what was important to me was kickin it with my friends, and playing my new Sega Genesis. Don't get me wrong, I was into girls. Hell, I think at 13, I saw, and touched, my first live breast. (And I've been hooked ever since. Lol). But sex? Not even in the top 10 things of importance in my life. Yes I wanted another sibling at that time, but a child of my own, HELL NO!



The boy got a 15 year old girl pregnant, so this wasn't an illegal circumstance per se. But this situation is just obscenely ridiculous. Apparently young Alfie, the 13 year old, was rarely attending school. And as we all know, children who don't go to school find other, more dangerous things, to get themselves into. Unfortunately, now, Alfie has given up his childhood, and also put the life of another child in jeopardy.

I know that you can only do so much as a parent. No parent can be with their child 24 hours a day. But its imperative that we teach our children about the consequences of the decisions that they make. Unfortunately you have these very same children looking at people like Jaime Lynn Spears (Britney Spear's little sister), and Bristol Palin (Governor Palin's 17 year old daughter) and recognizing the kind of attention that they're receiving. And actually, to a larger degree, they're seeing "adults" like Nadya Suleman, and all the attention that they receive for what everyone knows is irresponsible behavior. Children are a blessing. And the sooner we get back to treating them as such, instead of an accessory like a new purse or a nice pair of earrings, the sooner we can begin to improve the status of our American families.

-DrizaDre-