Alfie - 13 year old Dad

[Tulip]

Goodness... My friend is a middle school teacher and such news aren't strange to her. She's heard them one too many times.

[freshnesschronic]

it's completely insane. She had sex with that kid, who claims to be 13.

I don't even know what to say it's so bizarre. I don't even know if I spelled bizarre right.

[wolf]

I think the real surprise here is the amount of surprise, although I guess that this isn't all that regular an event over on the other side of the pond.

I've dealt with 13 year old Baby Mommas, and at least one 12 year old Baby Daddy.

It's whole big buckets of wrong.

But the DNA testing could prove interesting.

Does Alfie have to give the money back to the Sun if he's not the baby daddy?

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by wolf

I think the real surprise here is the amount of surprise, although I guess that this isn't all that regular an event over on the other side of the pond.

The Sun jumped at it because although the boy is 13 (and is not the youngest father in Britain) he looks about 8. That made for a visually arresting front page story.

The majority of the tabloids are right wing, so they loved this story - got them all frothing at the mouth about the state of the country and how it was going to hell in a handbasket yada, yada, yada. Wet dream of a story for them (all spurt and no substance) because of course the girl will get benefits, it's about underage sex in our "permissive" society, the Mum lives on a council estate, etc etc. Luckily none of those involved were immigrants, otherwise The Mail and the Express might have spontaneously combusted.

The broadsheets have been able to weigh in, as they are read by the educated classes, and their children are sent to single sex private schools and tied up with music lessons, sports clubs and drama until they are 18, so they have as little time for underage sex as possible. And of course if their sons or daughters do propagate it is handled within the family, shrugs and sympathy all round and they all get on with it quietly.

The bottom line apparently is it's Gordon Brown's fault. It wouldn't have happened if we still had corporal punishment in schools, it's the fault of sex education (or not enough of it) the Welfare State, swearing on television (probably Russell Brand has some culpability) and the only solution is to bring back hanging and National Service.

[OnyxCougar]

So you don't see a link between decreasing conservative values and increasing social decline?

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by OnyxCougar

So you don't see a link between decreasing conservative values and increasing social decline?

Oh PLEASE expound on this. I need a good spanking!

*runs around gleefully*

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by OnyxCougar

So you don't see a link between decreasing conservative values and increasing social decline?

Define social decline.

[Sundae]

Nope.

I've been hearing it since I was a child.
We don't seem to be in hell yet, handbasket or not.

People have always been degenerate, one way or another.
Dickens wrote accurately about the times he lived in for example, he only invented the characters. Hogarth's famous Gin Street etching was about society on the verge of collapse.

I doubt he's the first 13 year old to have fathered a child. And he won't be the last.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by OnyxCougar

So you don't see a link between decreasing conservative values and increasing social decline?

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

Nope.

I've been hearing it since I was a child.
We don't seem to be in hell yet, handbasket or not.

"What is happening to our young people these days?
I see a deterioration of values that worsens with every passing year."
- Baltasar Gracian, 1658

[OnyxCougar]

Oh, I'll spank you, alright, and don't even need a reason, you minx!!

[TheMercenary]

Amazing, all this talk and the kid may not be the father.

I see teens prego all the time. It really is a problem world wide. The youngest I have seen was prego at 12 and delivered at 13.

Kids need better education about birth control options and access to it. Not talk.

Just think. This could happen to your kid.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Amazing, all this talk and the kid may not be the father.

I see teens prego all the time. It really is a problem world wide. The youngest I have seen was prego at 12 and delivered at 13.

Just think. This could happen to your kid.

You really should be dating women around your own age, Merc


Srsly, this is an old problem. Our bodies are capable of reproduction years before our minds are capable of making sensible decisions about it.
I don't see how this can be "solved", but it can be managed by, as Merc says, better information, access to contraceptives, and also discouraging kinds from doing it (and keeping them busy with other things), but not condemning them if they do.

[binky]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Amazing, all this talk and the kid may not be the father.

I see teens prego all the time. It really is a problem world wide. The youngest I have seen was prego at 12 and delivered at 13.

Kids need better education about birth control options and access to it. Not talk.

Just think. This could happen to your kid.

Aww shit Merc! Why did you have to say THAT? I have 3 daughters, and the middle one turns 13 next month.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Kids need better education about birth control options and access to it. Not talk.

Good luck brining this up at the next RNC convention.

The "if you don't teach them about it, they won't do it" crowd is going strong.

Look at this list of state marriage laws. Most of them have some accommodation for teen pregnancy, and most of these laws have been on the books for decades, if not a century.

Originally Posted by richlevy

Good luck brining this up at the next RNC convention.

The "if you don't teach them about it, they won't do it" crowd is going strong.

Nearly $1.5 billion in federal funding for abstinence only education in the last 25 years, starting with Reagan (the "keep govt out of our lives" guy) and increased significantly in the last eight years (by the other "keep govt out of our lives" guy)

The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding