Warnings for Parents

Kids are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.  When I got married I had 6 theories about raising children. Now I have 6 children and no theories.

The goal is to raise children to become self-sufficient. They need to become self-supporting by working at something they enjoy. They are all different and some may have problems. Parents need to ensure that their children are on track to select an occupation they will enjoy and will enable them to be self-supporting.

We are all endowed with “free will” and the freedom to pursue decisions that will benefit us and decisions that will ruin us. This was true for us and is especially true for our children. Popular culture has promoted illegal drug use and entitlement since the 1960s.  Popular culture began to promote teen pregnancy in the 1950s and discouraged marriage since the 1960s.

Why is the teen birth rate falling? 4/29/16, by Eileen Patten and Gretchen Livingston.

In 1940, the teen pregnancy rate was 54.1 per thousand.
In 1957, the teen pregnancy rate peaked at 96.3 per 1000.In the 1960s only 15% of teens had babies out of wedlock.
In 2014, the teen pregnancy rate was 24.2 per 1000 births.In 2016, 89% of births were out of wedlock. Fathers had abandoned their responsibilities to the children they fathered.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/29/why-is-the-teen-birth-rate-falling/

I understood why teenagers needed to ensure that they avoid becoming parents of children out of wedlock. They are not capable of supporting these children.

There are no good choices in dealing with this. The choices are abortion, adoption, foster care and keeping the baby and each of these choices bring their own sets of problems.  The choices in preventing pregnancy are birth control pills and other devices. Before birth control, we exercised respect, self-respect, forethought and willpower to ensure abstinence.

Foster Care is the “nanny state” solution that usurped family responsibilities. It is not working and should be limited to become the last resort.

Abortion is murder. I cannot imagine choosing abortion over adoption. Those who choose to abort their unborn children suffer from guilt and dysfunction their entire lives. If they want to kill their children, they should wait until they are teenagers and it could be judged to be justifiable homicide.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader