Teen pregnancies

On Monday I got the shock of my life. I received an e-mail from cousin in Argentina saying that he is going to be a grandfather. It wouldn’t be so shocking if it came from one of my older cousins – my oldest cousin is 55/56 years old, an fair age to be a grandpa. In fact, one or two of my cousins already are. But this specific cousin of mine, Carlos, is 35 years old!! Apparently teen pregnancies run in his side of the family.

My parents kept this story from me until I was old enough to understand, which in their minds, was in my early twenties, ha ha. When Carlos was 17, he got his 14 (!!) year old girlfriend pregnant and so had to go for the shotgun wedding. Considering most of these weddings never last long, it’s nice to see that they are still happily married, four kids later! Sure, they have their bad times, like now, but they manage.

The result of that pregnancy was Eli, who is now 17 years old. Ever since I first met her, when she was six years old, I always knew she’d mean serious trouble for my cousin. She has this mischievous look on her face that tells you that she is up to something, and now she is pregnant. It seems such a shame because she is such a beautiful girl and has so much potential to do something with her life. Now I wonder what will become of her. Yikes, I sound like my mother! What the hell is going on here! Well, I hope things work out for her. I really do. And I am sure that her parents will give her all the support, since they went through it as well. The baby is now due in September, just in time for my parents’ arrival. I hope my mom will behave herself and not lecture the poor child.

It’s amazing how teen pregnancies seem to increase exponentially. You’d think that with all the sex education that is supposedly now taking place, especially due to the AIDS epidemic, that kids would at least be wise enough to practice safe sex. Sure, it’s not always fool-proof (or rather baby-proof) but it’s happening way too often. And it’s shocking that kids as young as 12 are now having sex. Whatever happened to their innocence? At that age I still hated boys! Boy, times sure have changed. And again, I sound like my mother. Ugh.