I was 18 when I got pregnant

[lost-in-nj]

with my son

he is now

31
a Paramedic and Asst. Chief of our fire Dept.
my daughter is 25
and graduated with an English Major
I will be 50 in November



I was married for 30 years before it went into the crapper

I have NO PROBLEM with this pregnancy..

Repug or Dem


its a baby


:hi:


lost

[gateley]

1. Do you have a problem with Bristol's mother accepting such an

under-the-microscope position with no regard as to how the story would affect her daughter?

[lost-in-nj]

6. What????

please explain what you mean...

I have no problem accepting a teenage pregnancy

whether repub or dem..


its a baby

and should have NO stake in this election

sorry

but it has no choice
NONE!!!!!
what ever "grandma" preaches

lost

[gateley]

12. I'm in total agreement with you on that, and my heart honestly goes out

to Bristol. This happens to wonderful girls all the time - it is not an indictment against her at all.

My criticism is of Bristol's mother -- Sarah Pailin. She had to have known this would become public knowledge, and yet she was willing to take that position regardless of how the resulting stories would hurt her daughter. And her soon to be born grandchild.

This has nothing to do with the baby or Bristol. It has everything to do with Sarah Palin.

[Sisaruus]

16. And sadly it appears to be the left

that has no problem with promoting all the hurtful chatter.

[MaraJade]

33. Another well-said post. . .

thanks for saying it so well.

[ZenKitty]

45. Maybe it has everything to do with judgmental folks like you?

Why not follow Obama's lead and stand down on this issue?

I just cannot wrap my head around how it seems to be okay with a vocal majority on DU to eviscerate a young mother to be...for what...political expediency? That just doesn't sit right with me. It's contrary to everything I believe in. Not to mention quite sad.

I swear it's like an alternate dimension reading some of these comments today....bad bad young woman having a baby before you're married....evil bad woman Mrs. Palin, working while you have children at home that need to be "tended" to. WTF!?!?!!?

[ZenKitty]

47. Why does it seem like all the hate and judgement is coming ....

from the side that I usually relate to myself. I am JUST BLOWN AWAY that those I consider my contemporaries would do such a 180 like this.

I guess I'm too idealistic. I have to be honest, it's been hard to read the board over the last day or so. Sad state of affairs...

[MaraJade]

30. Beautifully well said. . .

and your son sounds like a wonderful person. You must be VERY proud!

[MiniMe]

41. The question about who's baby Trig is was already news in Alaska

and in the Alaska papers. She saw what they did to John Kerry, and recently John Edwards. She knew that her daughter was pregnant, at least McSame said that she had told him before he offered her the VP selection. So she had to know that this would become very public nationally and put Bristol in a very unfortunate position. So why would she have accepted the VP nomination knowing that those things would become national news, especially considering her positions on abstinence only and making birth control and abortion illegal? If it was me, I would have told McCain "no way" rather than put my daughter through that. Who knows? Maybe in Sarah's warped mind this is Bristol's punishment for having pre-marital sex and getting pregnant. This whole thing sickens me on so many levels.

Personally, I feel sorry that Bristol had no choices, is being forced to get married, and that her mother has put her name in national headlines by her choice for ambition. I wish Bristol the best.

[Sisaruus]

17. You're the microscope.

Why would you want Bristol to bear the lifelong burden of knowing that she derailed her mother's aspiration?

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. It has NOTHING to do with a baby

The GOP Platform is as follows:

1. Keep government off my money
2. Keep governemnt off my guns
3. Government must be in charge of all family planning (no exceptions, not even rape)

Question for Gov. Palin:
"Would you put a women in jail if they choose to have an abortion?"

[lost-in-nj]

7. Then WHY is everyone bringing it

to the fore front????????



leave the baby ALONE!!!


Palins ethics

ok
ATTACK


lost

[Skittles]

15. did you even read DontTreadOnMe's reply?

THAT IS THE ANSWER WHY

[MaraJade]

38. Then why do we keep talking about this

baby?

(By the way, I love guns, I have plenty of them, including semi-automatics and I am a Democrat--at least
for the present)

Here's a great bit of information from the "Gun Toting Liberal" -- I love it!!

http://guntotingliberal.com/

[lligrd]

3. I Don't Have A Problem With The Baby Or Bristol

The grandmother and McCain are another story.

[lost-in-nj]

9. yup

me to......



but that poor baby will have a stigma

attached for ever


lost

[ZenKitty]

46. By whom, You? n/t

[MaraJade]

31. Then we need to stick to the issues. . .

If Palin secretly did build a bridge to nowhere and waste taxpayer dollars, then that's an issue.

If Palin misused her power to persecute a State Trooper for no reason at all, then that's an issue.

Palin's inexperience and lack of knowledge is an issue.

But Palin's family IS NOT AN ISSUE. Palin's being a working mother IS NOT AN ISSUE>

Didn't Mr Obama issue a statement that he does not want his people talking about the family matters
of Sarah Palin?

[Joanne98]

4. I got pregnant when I was 17. I didn't lie about it.

[lost-in-nj]

10. me either

I LOVE MY KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


there is a reason I had them

they ARE making a difference

my daughter is a STAUNCH DEM!!!!!


lost

[MaraJade]

44. Sounds like Palin's daughter went to her parents directly

and didn't lie about it either.

My honor-student niece didn't lie when she got pregnant either. Broke our hearts when she told us
because she ruined her college chances (lost a major scholarship) and has been struggling to catch
up ever since. My sister taught her consistently that sex without or before marriage was unwise,
especially to a young woman who did not have an education or a job that could adequately support a
family, but it did not work. Hormones and persuasion from the boy won out. Adding to the problem is the
fact that the boy turned out to have Juvenile Diabetes, which seriously affects employment prospects.

She married the boy, and now both of them are very seriously struggling to survive. Family is helping but wow!
They are so unprepared for life and neither has an adequate education to get a good job.

If she'd only listened, her life would have been so different.

Sex is not all fun and games, people.

And. . .not everyone favors abortion. We are Dems (for now, at least) but we've always been anti-abortion.
Cynical and mean-spirited people may say that we should have pressed my niece to abort or to give the
baby up, but most black families won't do that sort of thing. So we struggle along with them and hope for
the best. That IS what "PRO-CHOICE" is all about.

[goddess40]

5. her mother is a staunch abstinence only jerk

If her daughter had access to birth control maybe this wouldn't have happened or had all the facts maybe she would have decided to wait.

I'm glad you and your son beat the odds, but pregnant at seventeen and getting married the odds are against them making it.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Wow. Sounds like you're a good parent. Seriously, no sarcasm intended.

However, as for Mrs. Palin, I think the situation is a bit different.

Given her fringe beliefs and the fact that everyone gets $1200 from the oil companies every year, I think everyone of her kids is going to be--if they aren't already--messed up.

[secondwind]

18. It's up to $3,300 per Alaskan come this October, and that is why

Sarah Palin has a high approval rating, it has nothing to do
with her "accomplishments" or competence.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. $3,300! Damn! You got a link!? n/t

[secondwind]

19. It's up to $3,300 per Alaskan come this October, and that is why

Sarah Palin has a high approval rating, it has nothing to do
with her "accomplishments" or competence.

[JohnnyLib2]

11. You speak for a great many women

-- and their families. :thumbsup:

[Tallison]

13. It's the flaw it reveals Palin's agenda

for abstinence-only education, illegalizing abortion, and minimizing public assistance for disadvantaged families that makes the daughter's pregnancy so publicly relevant.

:think:

Edit for spell

[ColbertWatcher]

22. "illegalizing abortion" You mean criminalizing modern medicine, right?

:hi:

[Tallison]

23. Hate to see the implications for future stem-cell research

with nuts like her and Mac in the executive office. It's as if life begins at conception and ends at birth.


:eyes:

[ColbertWatcher]

27. Exactly. n/t

[MaraJade]

35. It has nothing to do with Palin's agenda. . .

Anyone who has a teen knows full well that teenagers are often headstrong and will go against
your best counsel no matter what you do. I am the mother of a 17-year-old, and well know the
struggles of parents with teens. Believe me, many are the days when I wish she were two years old
again, and the only arguments we had were about me not allowing her the baby bottle any more.

Now we argue over the over-use of the computer and the cell phone, why she goes out with her
boyfriend so much and why the homework isn't done. Every time she goes out with her boyfriend, I
question her directly--"are you having sex with that boy?" May seem like a stupid question to
some, but by asking directly, I let her know that I am aware of what is going on in her life.

All a parent can do is teach what you can and hope something sets in. If the child makes a mistake
after that, it isn't fair to blame what happened on the parent. After all the child has a measure
of free will too, and apart from locking your child up like a prisoner, there is little you can
actually do to control their actions.

I do hope that my opinion here doesn't offend anyone.

[Tallison]

48. I criticize Palin for her policies, not parenting,

and hubris in pushing her moral agenda on my family's business. Talk about intrusion!

Knowing, as she must, that abstinence-only education does not work, how irresponsible to prescribe it for an entire society. Nothing short of a public about-face on that platform should inoculate her from criticism.

No offense taken or meant.

[Ilsa]

14. I don't have a problem with her pregnancy. I hope she ad baby stay healthy

and happy. :hi:

It proves her agenda for Abstinence Only sex ed doesn't work. And some women want choices.

[malaise]

21. I have a few friends who were pregnant before 18

but their mothers weren't either voting for policies that prevented sensible sexual education or attempting to tell others how to live their lives.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. BINGO!

That's the whole damn problem in an nutshell right there!

(BTW, how are you doing?)

[malaise]

25. I'm fine

We're back to normal but refuse to restock the freezer until the end of September :D

This has nothing to do with a baby. This has to do with hypocrisy and double standards. I'm taking bets that if 29 year old Chelsea Clinton (with a Masters Degree and her own apartment) was pregnant tomorrow and not married, it would be front page headlines with quotes from everyone supporting this seventeen year old and her right wing lunatic mother.

add

[ColbertWatcher]

28. Yes, the GOP's hypocrisy and double-standards. n/t

[MaraJade]

43. Do you have a teenage daughter or son?

may I ask?

Being a parent is a difficult and thankless job. Teens often will not obey their home
training, especially when under the influence of hormones and puppy love.

I am a mom--I know.

My daughter has done things that are against my religion, but that says nothing about my values
or that of my family. The only thing that it says is that I have a sometimes disobedient child.

So--how old are your children?

[libodem]

26. I respect your opinion

and you. Good job.

[Orangepeel]

29. I have a problem with abstinence only sex ed and restrictions on birth control

I'm glad that your story turned out well.

[BoneDaddy]

32. Do not confuse the issues

At least for me the issue is not about the pregnancy or my understanding of trying to "clean" it up. It is about the hypocrisy of her "values" clashing with what the rest of the world is dealing with. She, as a politician, can pay for the choices of her children. Most of the country cannot, that is why this is an issue.

[MaraJade]

36. Her "values?"

I don't understand.

A parent can teach their child that sex before marriage is wrong. You can teach that to your child for
years...

But then, along comes some 'sweet talking boy' who plays on her hormones and her emotions and convinces her
otherwise (or even outright LIES to the girl).

How does a parent control that? And what does the daughter's lack of self-control have to do with the
"values" of the parent?

[BoneDaddy]

39. Her "values'

include being pro abstinence. Of course she is not responsible for her daughter's choices. It should, however, change her position about what other women may be dealing with and coping with teen age sex in a truly protective, and responsible way, especially if that is what you are promoting as your main strength. Abstinence only does not work. That is why.

[AlCzervik]

34. No one hates the baby or the mother, it's not about that.

it's about the deranged grandmother and her political positions and making her own daughter go through this in a very public way and the fundies best tread lightly because many teenage girls don't have the resources to take of a baby should tey chose to keep it.

It is unfair to Bristol Palin.

[MaraJade]

37. She made her daughter go through this?

It's the media that is out of control...

They are looking to air the dirty laundry on everyone--look at the constant bashing of the Democratic Candidates
for a very good example.

[MiniMe]

42. Unfortunately, that is the way that politics work these days

Look what they did to John Edwards? And what about the crap the swifties pulled on John Kerry in 2004? The Trig thing was already being speculated about in the Alaska papers and blogs. Sarah knew her daughter was pregnant before accepting the offer of VP. She can't be so naive to think this wouldn't have come out and be splashed across national headlines.

[avaistheone1]

40. Most teenage pregnancies don't turn out so well.

Many never graduate high school. Many live in poverty. In fact often a cycle of poverty begins that passes to this young mother's offspring and future generations.

Beyond that it is plain unhealthy for the baby to be born to a teenager. There are much higher infant mortality and infant morbidity rate in babies born to teen mothers.

But I am glad it all worked out for you.

:thumbsup:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

49. I don't have a problem with Bristol's pregnancy either.

I do have a problem with her mother's embrace of anti-choice and anti-comprehensive sex education policies.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

50. Finally a responsible post.

[EFerrari]

51. I was that age, too and had both sons by the time I was 22.

I wish the Palin girl a family as loving and flexible as mine was. We all had a great time with the babies. :)

[LaPera]

52. Very tough for one.......

[Quantess]

53. Sounds like a great guy, and you raised him well.

I hope no one has criticized you for....anything. That would be petty and ignorant, if, anyone has... :hug:

About the Palins: I don't have a problem with either of the babies in question, so neither should you.

I do have an issue with hypocrisy, though.

I take issue with Diaper Dave Ritter, R-LA, who gets diapers changed by prostitutes, while governing "family values".

Similarly, I fully accept gays and lesbians, but I do take issue with the "wide stance" Idaho governor's hypocrisy of lashing out hatefully at gays from behind his closet door.

I see the Palins as hypocrites. Gov. Palin wants birth control restricted to a much greater degree than it already is, and wants "abstinence only" in schools.
Apparently, the Palins are true to their word about being anti-abortion, so that's sort of ...nice, I suppose.
Now that I think about it, maybe this is not hypocrisy at all..?
Maybe fundies who insist on abstinence-only-education truly want their teens to get pregnant..?