“Trouble reproducing trouble"?

It wasn’t a world ago that conceiving a baby at a young age was not seen as a crime but rather seen as the norm. Over time many there has been a handful of events, which have attributed to the historical changes  in the transition to parenthood, and deciding what is considered now to be a good age to become a parent. Over time the way teen pregnancy is viewed has taken a turn, and has begun to be viewed as “trouble reproducing trouble”. Reality is that there once was a time when giving birth to an infant before the mother’s twentieth birthday was the traditional and accustomed way to plan motherhood.

Since the 1700 and 1800’s there have been many changes in the way children and teens are educated on the topic of parenthood.  The transition to parenthood has transformed and revolutionized due to the changes in society, from changes in family structure to also changes in the teens themselves.  “When the times change, ways of life have to change as well”.  Going back to two- three centuries ago everything in life was scheduled to happen a lot sooner from parenthood to death. It could have possibly been due to the fact, which life expectancy was shorter from anywhere on their later thirties to early forties. Thinking back to history and the lack of technology there were times in which was almost mandatory to create a family at a young age  in order to face fewer complications in comparison to someone over their thirties.

To begin with the onset of wars such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Vietnam War, were some of the events that started leaving mothers to care for the children on their own due to the fact the father figure at times would be deployed and not end up returning home for whatever the reason was. This showed society that it was not easy to be a single parent and this is when views started to change, because society felt that the children that were raised by single parents were affected in many as they grew older. Industrialization was also a big factor in the conversion of how teen pregnancy was viewed because along with industrialization came technology and opportunity.  Opportunity to improve technology and be more than a blue collar worker, this is also when becoming a more educated person became essential.  With the rural to urban shift, smaller family sizes, and increase in high divorce rates, it became easy for society to transition their view on teen pregnancy, teen parenthood, and family structure and that is why views, opinions, and statistics have been altered.

Views and opinions have been altered to what some say for the better, society now wait for parents to be college graduates, wedded have a stable home in a safe neighborhood. Due to the reasons that having both parents around increases the chances of the child’s well being , more stability due to the fact that they are educated and most likely have a stable career.  Versus 48% of all non-marital first births occur to teens making them the largest single group and also teen mothers who only have a 51% rate that have a high school diploma compared to 90% who didn’t have a teen birth, not to add that most teen mothers end up on government assistance (Teenpregnancy.org).