72% Of Babies Born To Unwed Mothers

[chanel]

It cracks me up that the same people who cry about chubby kids and demonize parents who buy their kids happy meals, have absolutely no problem with parents who allow their daughters to sleep with their boyfriends. "It's no one's business"? Oh yes it is.

 

[Sarah G]

Things move slowly here. Women sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the narrow waiting room, sometimes for more than an hour. Carroll does not rush her mothers in and out. She wants her babies born as healthy as possible, so Carroll spends time talking to the mothers about how they should care for themselves, what she expects them to do — and why they need to get married.

Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate - Yahoo! News

She should mind her own business, not all unwed mothers are teens.

Sarah, society is paying for these kids, that makes it everyone's business.

How is getting married helping the situation if these are all poor Black children? The woman needs a job, she isn't capable of solving issues that require brain power.

 

[MelissaD]

I don't see how being married or not is relevant to anything. 50% of marriages end in divorce.

 

[Ravi]

We could always offer to pay unwed mothers to abort.

 

[California Girl]

She should mind her own business, not all unwed mothers are teens.

Sarah, society is paying for these kids, that makes it everyone's business.

How is getting married helping the situation if these are all poor Black children? The woman needs a job, she isn't capable of solving issues that require brain power.

Please don't do a 'Maddie' on me, Sarah. I said nothing about being married. I don't care whether someone is married or not. I care only when they have kids and expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for their offspring.

 

[Sarah G]

Sarah, society is paying for these kids, that makes it everyone's business.

How is getting married helping the situation if these are all poor Black children? The woman needs a job, she isn't capable of solving issues that require brain power.

Please don't do a 'Maddie' on me, Sarah. I said nothing about being married. I don't care whether someone is married or not. I care only when they have kids and expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for their offspring.

What?

It said in the article that she "consults" with teens and encourages them to marry. How does that help get them off the dole? She is advising them but has no idea how to help.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Can you post a link to your thread. This is an issue that concerns me personally as a teacher. Too many girls thinking motherhood is bliss and too many mothers (and teachers) celebrating this "blessing". It makes me nuts.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/gener...-the-major-problem-in-the-us.html#post2718143

This forum is not the place to debate all the issues - costs and human misery - of a topic so broad. I do want to commend CG for the thought she put into "an-idealists...".

That said, in California the Depts of Social Service and Probation have battled these issues for decades. Too many of the children of children end up in out-of-home placements (foster and group homes) at an enormous cost - to them and to society. Neglected and abused kids end up cared for by social service, many of these kids begin life in foster homes and remain there until they are 18 - at 18 they are out, ready or not and the years in placement may have included stays in a dozen or more foster/group homes with little or no contact with family.
Many girls want a family and soon become a an unwed mother.
Many 601's (Ca welfare and institutions code for a neglected or abused child) act out, and minor crimes (petty theft, fighting with other wards, experimenting with drugs) & wear out foster parents/social service group homes, leading to police involvement. Soon these abused and neglected kids end up in court and get a new number - 602. This changes them from abused and neglected into Delinquents.
A 602 may now be housed with other 602's, gangsters, murderers, rapists - other 602's who may have been abused and neglected (and usually were) but have graduated in a criminal lifestyle.
Juvenile Halls lack the staff and budget to do much in the way of classifying kids on their level of delinquency. Most house the kids on units by age and size. So a tall 17 year old abused and neglected kid who smoked too much weed to remain in foster care is housed in a room with a 14 year old whose tall, buff and & street wise; a kid held on sexual assault charges.
The outcome for the 17 year old is not pretty (I investigated the 17 yo's rape).

 

[chanel]

I think her plan has a lot of merit. Kids need two parents; whether they are married or not. However, it's a lot easier for a man to walk away before he has a chance to bond with the baby. Divorced women generally get child support and have visitation arrangements. Never been married women often are left with nothing. Girls with involved fathers tend to avoid teen pregnancy. That's the way to stop the cycle in my opinion.

 

[Wry Catcher]

I think her plan has a lot of merit. Kids need two parents; whether they are married or not. However, it's a lot easier for a man to walk away before he has a chance to bond with the baby. Divorced women generally get child support and have visitation arrangements. Never been married women often are left with nothing. Girls with involved fathers tend to avoid teen pregnancy. That's the way to stop the cycle in my opinion.

Sex education beginning at age 12 for girls, a bit later for boys is a first step. If a child is able to create life they need to know the facts about conception and STD. How conception happens and how to prevent it. What we are doing today is insane, yet we continue to pursue the same policies and have the same arguments as lives are created and destroyed.
BTW, have you ever looked at the literature on Youth or Peer Courts? Though not directly on topic you've in the past brought up other issues with students, it's worth a look, imho.

 

[chanel]

Thanks wry. I'll check it out.

Without sounding too trite, I am a big proponent of girl sports as well. There's been some research...

 

[Wry Catcher]

Thanks wry. I'll check it out.

Without sounding too trite, I am a big proponent of girl sports as well. There's been some research...

I agree. I believe middle schools ought to have co-ed teams; many sports are appropriate: Softball, volleyball, soccer, basketball, bowling and track (especially mixed relays).
Boys and Girls are curious, playing together under supervised sport acitivity makes sense and need not cost the district much money. Parent volunteers, and high school athletes who earn HS credit might be recruited to coach & supervise.

 

[boedicca]

A 1990 study by the Progressive Policy Institute showed that after controlling for single motherhood, the difference between black and white crime rates disappeared.

Well, thats an interesting factoid.

It certainly is.

And it is reinforces the criticism of the Great Society Programs which encouraged black teenage girls to have babies out of wedlock as a career choice.

 

[Wry Catcher]

A 1990 study by the Progressive Policy Institute showed that after controlling for single motherhood, the difference between black and white crime rates disappeared.

Well, thats an interesting factoid.

It certainly is.

And it is reinforces the criticism of the Great Society Programs which encouraged black teenage girls to have babies out of wedlock as a career choice.

Why do you always focus on partisan matters and rarely (ever?) on substantive ideas to solve problems?

 

[uscitizen]

She should mind her own business, not all unwed mothers are teens.

Sarah, society is paying for these kids, that makes it everyone's business.

How is getting married helping the situation if these are all poor Black children? The woman needs a job, she isn't capable of solving issues that require brain power.

so all unwed mothers are not capable of solving issues that require brain power?
That would include the white unwed mothers too I would suppose?

 

[California Girl]

Can you post a link to your thread. This is an issue that concerns me personally as a teacher. Too many girls thinking motherhood is bliss and too many mothers (and teachers) celebrating this "blessing". It makes me nuts.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/gener...-the-major-problem-in-the-us.html#post2718143

This forum is not the place to debate all the issues - costs and human misery - of a topic so broad. I do want to commend CG for the thought she put into "an-idealists...".

That said, in California the Depts of Social Service and Probation have battled these issues for decades. Too many of the children of children end up in out-of-home placements (foster and group homes) at an enormous cost - to them and to society. Neglected and abused kids end up cared for by social service, many of these kids begin life in foster homes and remain there until they are 18 - at 18 they are out, ready or not and the years in placement may have included stays in a dozen or more foster/group homes with little or no contact with family.
Many girls want a family and soon become a an unwed mother.
Many 601's (Ca welfare and institutions code for a neglected or abused child) act out, and minor crimes (petty theft, fighting with other wards, experimenting with drugs) & wear out foster parents/social service group homes, leading to police involvement. Soon these abused and neglected kids end up in court and get a new number - 602. This changes them from abused and neglected into Delinquents.
A 602 may now be housed with other 602's, gangsters, murderers, rapists - other 602's who may have been abused and neglected (and usually were) but have graduated in a criminal lifestyle.
Juvenile Halls lack the staff and budget to do much in the way of classifying kids on their level of delinquency. Most house the kids on units by age and size. So a tall 17 year old abused and neglected kid who smoked too much weed to remain in foster care is housed in a room with a 14 year old whose tall, buff and & street wise; a kid held on sexual assault charges.
The outcome for the 17 year old is not pretty (I investigated the 17 yo's rape).

Firstly, can I just say.... I find it quite unnerving when you compliment anything I write.

The comments you made above are exactly WHY I wrote the 'An Idealists...". Because sooner rather than later - we need to address this issue. It is probably the most impactive issue we have as a society. If we could find a way to address it, we could fix many of the resulting issues. Every major issue we face as a society is fixable by changing the attitude of the next generation. It worked the first time around - when we decided that it was 'fine' for young females to have kids without fathers. To not hold fathers responsible for their children. (I know we pay lip service to doing that but, in fact, we do not).

If we address that issue BEFORE these kids have kids, the impact for all of society is hugely beneficial.

I know it would be hard. I appreciate that it would mean that most of us would have to accept things that we would prefer not to accept - both liberals and conservatives - but, in the long term - it would help us build a better America.

 

[chanel]

Well I'm sure we all know successful black people. And most of them have one thing in common. Any guesses?

 

[boedicca]

Well, thats an interesting factoid.

It certainly is.

And it is reinforces the criticism of the Great Society Programs which encouraged black teenage girls to have babies out of wedlock as a career choice.

Why do you always focus on partisan matters and rarely (ever?) on substantive ideas to solve problems?

Why do you always refuse to understand the causes of the problems in the first place?

Misguided government programs destroyed black family formation, especially in urban areas. Neglecting this fact when trying to "solve problems" leads to more of the same misguided policies which created the problems in the first place.

 

[uscitizen]

So unwed pregnancies are the government's fault?

Sheesh.

More like Gods fault if anyones besides the persons involved.
He created we hormone driven creatures.
Or so most seem to believe.

 

[Wry Catcher]

It certainly is.

And it is reinforces the criticism of the Great Society Programs which encouraged black teenage girls to have babies out of wedlock as a career choice.

Why do you always focus on partisan matters and rarely (ever?) on substantive ideas to solve problems?

Why do you always refuse to understand the causes of the problems in the first place?

Misguided government programs destroyed black family formation, especially in urban areas. Neglecting this fact when trying to "solve problems" leads to more of the same misguided policies which created the problems in the first place.

Description of Confusing Cause and Effect
This fallacy is committed when a person assumes that one event must cause another just because the events occur together. More formally, this fallacy involves drawing the conclusion that A is the cause of B simply because A and B are in regular conjunction (and there is not a common cause that is actually the cause of A and B). The mistake being made is that the causal conclusion is being drawn without adequate justification.

Consider if you will: "...in California the Depts of Social Service and Probation have battled these issues for decades. Too many of the children of children end up in out-of-home placements (foster and group homes) at an enormous cost - to them and to society. Neglected and abused kids end up cared for by social service, many of these kids begin life in foster homes and remain there until they are 18 - at 18 they are out, ready or not and the years in placement may have included stays in a dozen or more foster/group homes with little or no contact with family."
"Many girls want a family and soon become an unwed mother." They crave what they know they missed.

 

[rightwinger]

72% is a freakn catastrophe for blacks if they want to get ahead socially and economically

Regardless of racism, unemployment, education or whatever else is preventing blacks from succeeding economically, if 72 % have no father, they are doomed to fail. No one else but the black community is able to do anything about the failure of black fathers to take care of their children.
Until the black community takes strong actions against absent fathers, they will always struggle economically