I missed the premiere of The Pregnancy Pact movie on Lifetime this weekend, but I was able to catch it this evening. My response? O M G!
I remember hearing about the story last year. Seventeen teenage girls at Glouchester High School in New Hampshire became pregnant at the same time, and the public began speculating, wondering if it was more than just a coincidence. After much research and apprehensiveness, it was discovered that these girls were involved in a “pregnancy pact”, vowing that each one of them would get pregnant and tell no one about their secret plan.
Many of the school’s administrators including the principal, took the fall for what happened. In the movie, I witnessed everyone placing blame on everyone else, while it seemed that no one wanted to really get to the heart of the story, not even the parents. It finally took a Time Magazine reporter to break the story wide open.
Of course these girls just wanted unconditional love.
I was also a teen mom. I graduated in high school when I was seventeen years old in 1993, and in April of 1994, I had a son at aged eighteen. It was hard. Difficult. Sometimes I didn’t know how we were going to make it, he and I. I made so many mistakes. But we persevered. My story got better long the way.
My story was not about looking for unconditional love. I did not get pregnant on purpose. But these girls did. And not only that, they all vowed to. It was strategically planned.
Of course none of them were ready for the repercussions.
As a mother of a teenaged son myself aged 15, I often speak to my son about sex and protecting himself. I ask him questions. I ask him if he has questions for me. He often says no but every once and awhile, he says he does and we talk about it.
Communication is the best form of sexual education. Parental communication. We cannot leave it up to the schools to monitor our children’s sexual behavior. That is the job of the parent or guardian and I take it very seriously.
I am not going to say if I believe birth control should be given at school. That is something I go back and forth with. But as a parent, I have to make sure that when and if the time comes and he wants to have sex and simply cannot wait as I have instructed him to, he has the tools he needs to be safe.
What do you feel about ‘The Pregnancy Pact’? How can we make sure that an event like this doesn’t happen again? Let me read your thoughts on the subject.
No one wants to accept their part of the blame in a situation such as this. I saw the movie and personally I believe it all goes back to the home environment, the parents. I'm definitely not saying that they're bad parents, just that parents have got to make their children feel comfortable in coming to them with their problems/issues. Too often parents start conversations (especially conversations that have to do with a child making a mistake) with judgment and assumptions. All too often parents do not LISTEN, they also do not ACT on the signs that indicate that there is some kind of problem or situation. For example, a child comes home upset and runs up to their room, the parent asks "what's wrong" the child says "nothing" and the parent leaves it alone and never says anything else, to me that is not an adequate response to the situation. If the child is not getting counsel from you they are getting it from their friends who are just as inexperienced, immature, and narcissistic as they are. I'm not saying that you can't give a child some breathing room to calm down, just that you've got to let them know that you're there, you're wise, and you can LISTEN. If you tell them that enough then hopefully they will be prompted to seek out your comfort and advice. However, even the most seemingly perfect parent can somehow end up raising a fool…all in all there is just no guarantee. Even those who turn out foolish in their youth can end up back on the right track when they're much older, I think that most people who were reared with good values eventually revert back to those values that they were raised with in their childhood.