Teen Pregnancy/Bless Her Heart

Doug and I tutor a high school student to prepare her for the SAT on Sundays.  We tutor her at a local library. 

Yesterday, while Doug was tutoring, I saw a teenage girl who was about 14 browsing the "young adult" section.  She seemed completely in place...until I saw that she was about 8 months pregnant.

My first thought was 'you are ruining your life.  You are going to miss the end of the school year.  Most teen parents don't complete high school or go to college.'

My second thought was 'oh, honey! If only you knew that the 20 minutes you spent browsing the books and the 20 minutes you spent looking through them on the couch, yeah, you won't have the luxury or quiet to do either of those things anytime soon.'  Bless her heart!

I wish someone had told me just how hard parenthood is and how little time you have to yourself to accomplish anything.  I had some inkling, but I really had NO idea what parenthood is like.  I remember feeling like I was in the middle of the ocean, drowning, and no one was there to help me get above water.  This, of course, wasn't true; I had Doug and my mom.  However, I didn't feel like they had any clue how I felt.

Parenthood has gotten much better and I am looking forward to expanding our family.  For the teenage girl though, without the support of family (which she very well may have) and the baby's father, and the fact that she is still a child herself, she has a long road to hoe.  I know when I was her age, there is no way that I could have handled the pressures and stresses (and sleeplessness) or parenthood.