News this morning talked about baby Rachel that was pulled out of the trash
where her 13 year old mother had placed her. If you have children around this
age, this may be a good topic to discuss to find out how they would handle the
situation, how they feel about it and explore and share your feelings on the
subject. The key is sharing open and honest feelings and let them share
likewise. You want them to be able to come to you no matter what, with out fear
of humiliation, degradation, or reprisal. You want them to know that you will
support and back them up, but there are consequences of their actions that they
will have to bear, but they won't have to do it alone. They will need to learn
to weigh the consequences with the desired outcome to determine if their
decision was a good one.
This poem was hard to write. To many mixed feelings getting in the way. On one
side a child having a child on the other parents who will be devastated, but
will get over it and cope. The new mother carrying the guilt also knowing "she
is doing this to her parents, panics into a second bad decision", but the
justice system wants to punish this child who barely knows what she has done.
Wouldn't it be better to let her work out this mistake with her parents rather
than ruin her life. What about the father (who was 14)? Are they going to ruin
his life also? There must be consequences, but locking up the father and mother
isn't the answer.
This poem is dedicated to all the unwanted babies.
