How she decides will impact her and her baby and in many cases it will affect the man who fathered the child as well. Too often, he is left out of the decision process, and just as often the young woman will make her decision without fully exploring the option of adoption.
This article leaves out the impact on the family of the mother and the father.
My step daughter who lives with me was a teen mother. She was sixteen when she had her son. She decided to have and the keep baby. In my estimation this was a purely selfish decision. I tried to pursued her to give up the child but was fought by my wife in the matter.
She of course has no job at the time and no money. Consequently the financial burden of the child fell on my wife and me.
In the time to follow the birth my step daughter has gradually spent less and less time with her son. He spends about 4 days a week with his father who farms out most of the care of the boy to his aunt who is a substance abuser. The other three days she has the boy she dumps him on her mother and I.
The boy is three and ½ years old and is not potty trained. He gets very little encouragement in that department when he is at his father’s. He typically show’s up at our house with a sore bottom.
My step daughter is the most self centered person I have ever met and should never have been a mother. I knew from the time I was told she was pregnant that things would turn out as they have.
As I see the future it will be my wife and I (the grand parents) raising this boy. This is a common trend today that the article ignores.
Gosh, Pontiac.. I feel so sorry for your grandson. No true consistency in his life, is there? He is with this parent, then an Aunt (with substance abuse), then back and forth. I probably shouldn’t write this but IMHO... the best decision would have been to have the child adopted by a loving couple. In open adoptions, your step-daughter could have made it part of the agreement to get letters/pictures/etc.. As it stands now... the best for this little boy would be if you two were granted full custody/guardianship (I just fear the Aunt and her drugs and the impact it will have on the little one). Prayers for him...