Prevent Teenage Pregnancy - Feed Your Daughter Breakfast
Monday January 14, 2008
Ever since Jamie Lynn Spears announced she's pregnant, I've been looking into teenage pregnancy statistics. Two items of interest: The states with the most teen pregnancies aren't the states with the highest teen abortion rates. More teens choose abortion in the mid-Atlantic states than anywhere else. Those are the sobering facts in the US.
Teen pregnancy is also an issue in Japan, but somehow, the one stat that popped out at me is the one that made me laugh. Here's details from The Japan Times Online:
A survey last month by the Gunma Prefecture Board of Education shows an interesting correlation between the sexual activity of young teenagers and, of all things, breakfast habits.What's the relationship? The article states that "regular breakfasts imply a harmonious family."Kids who eat breakfast regularly are less apt to be prematurely preoccupied with sex....
Is the same true in the US? Who can we get to fund that study? And can they come to my house to make sure my teenage daughters participate?
In the movie Juno, currently in theaters, the title character is seen in the opening credits guzzling from a huge bottle of Sunny Delight over the course of a morning. Yet she still finds out she's pregnant. So I guess that tells us one of two things:
- The wacky Japanese 'eat your cereal or else' statistic gets lost in translation in the US, or...
- A liquid breakfast doesn't count.
Comments
Juno guzzling a bottle of SunnyD in the morning is NOT the same thing as a family sitting down to share a breakfast meal, or even the concept of a child having a breakfast prepared by a Mom who is present and involved. It isnt the meal – it is the geschtalt of familiar interconnectedness and the sense a child has of being valued and belonging that MAY lead to a greater ability of restraint from sexual involvement, typically engaged in to provide a sense of “belonging to someone” or elevating a sense of self. Can we start to get a clue that there is a complete package of life here that overlaps all behaviors, good and bad, that indicate we have placed the value of our children and a Mother’s rearing them lower than the level of shoe repair? (with all due respect to shoe repair people) Making things worse is an abundance of women staying home with children who havent the first idea of quality skills required to raise healthy, competent and individually skilled children. Lets get over the materialism and star addiction we have and get back to valuing people. However, do NOT read this to imply an erroneous belief in the rubric of “Christian Family Values”. I have treated more mistreated children from “good Christian families” than I care to think about. It isnt any one religion – it is commitment to learn how to do what is effective for the benefit of the child and the mature ability to forgo one’s selfishness for a number of years in order to tend to the needs of the child and raise a valuable member of society.
Patricia, you are absolutely right. In fact, the most powerful statement you make about women needing “the mature ability to forgo one’s selfishness for a number of years in order to tend to the needs of the child” is a truth many women don’t want to hear. So thank you for stating your case.
I try very hard not to be preachy, as every woman’s situation is unique and the full circumstances are only known to her alone. And there’s enough misogyny out there and judgment of women that I don’t wish to add to it.
But I can say from personal experience that after staying home with my young children, I returned to work and to a career path that I felt fortunate to be able to resume. It was immeasurably fulfilling, yet my two daughters suffered for it, especially after the death of their grandparents (my parents) within weeks of each other.
It became clear that I could not continue, and I quit my job to stay home with my 12 and 14 year old girls. Today they are 14 and 16, and our relationship has never been better. Both are open and honest with me, even when their behaviors are far from perfect. I treasure them and what we have, and nothing is more important.
Having said that, I was able to quit because I am not the primary – or only – breadwinner of my family.
Many women don’t have that choice. So while I agree with you in principle, I can’t fault women who work, because I’m not in their shoes. And to some extent, every woman’s choice is her own, even though the results may not be as we would like.
Finally, I like to have fun with my posts now and then. Of course walking the streets guzzling Sunny D is not “breakfast” with your family, but a little tongue-in-cheek humor never hurts.
‘ A liquid breakfast doesn’t count.’
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Is it true that if you drink pineapple juice in the first trimester that you could force a miscarriage?
I think eating a breakfast cannot prevent