Ante Natal Classes at school?

[R1Geezer]

Good or bad? Would it normalise teenage pregnancy? Would it create envy among school girls and hence encourage others to get up the duff?
Oh it's on the front page of the daily Mail by the way!

[ummmm]

It's not fair I agree.

A friend of ours has just been given a brand new flat (I think it's private but through the council) but she works...and will be returning to work as soon as her maternity leave is over. She'll have to pay rent and council tax...although at lower rates. I wonder if she'd be better off jacking in her job? (something she wouldn't do)

[B00]

So we're back to the make it a stigma and stop rewarding these girls then, aren't we?

[jackthehat]

Perhaps the 'fathers' could be subject to 12 months incarceration in one of these 'homes of shame', too............?

[ummmm]

Good point....it takes two and all that.

[B00]

Possibly jack, but rightly or wrongly, it is ultimately the women/ girls responsibilty to make sure she doesn't get pregnant isn't it?

[jackthehat]

It is, B00.
But we seem to be failing to get the girls to take responsibility for their fertility, so perhaps we ought to turn our attention to the young lads ?

[sophie_1003]

I agree that women (and men) shouldn't be rewarded for having a child they can't support and were never intending to support but how can you withdraw 'incentives' without it impacting on the child?

[ummmm]

To start with...how about they have to live with their family and won't be given a house/flat.

[sophie_1003]

What happens when their family then throws them out (as may have happened a few years ago)?

[B00]

Impacting on the child? How?

[ummmm]

Like someone else said....hostel.

[sophie_1003]

I agree in that a hostel would be the best idea ummmm; as long as it was ensured that it was a safe place for a load of single mums and children to be then yes it would work well; also provided that they weren't turned into workhouses; not all moralls in the past made society better!
Boo- if for example, they were not allowed to stay in the family home; denied housing help and hostels didn't exist or couldn't accomodate the mum and child then I think that being homeless would impact on the child quite a lot!

[B00]

Maybe they should have thought about that before having sex then?

[sophie_1003]

But it's not the childs fault that their mums couldn't keep their legs together!

[B00]

Well we'll keep the system as it is then Sophie, as it's clearly working....

[Ankou]

how is bunging a mother and child into a hostel going to help ?

[B00]

Maybe- just maybe it might be some kind of deterant to some knowing that they won't get a council house out of it Ankou?

I'm no expert (no honestly, im not!) but the present situation, of giving them social handouts and housing is clearly not working. We are now a state where children are now bringing up children- well, when I say bringing up...dragging them up.

[Ankou]

so who pays for this hostel ?

[daffy654]

The tax-payers of course Ankou, the same people who fund the benefit system.

There is no easy answer to the situation, if there were it would have been figured out and implemented long before now.

[B00]

Yes sadly the tax payer again, but surely its a cheaper option than giving each of these young mothers a house each?

For once though i wasn't actually looking at the money aspect of it. I was thinking more of distilling fear (for want of a better word) into young girls, fear of what the consequences could be if they got pregnant.