I decided that we have talked about the mother and the father enough. What about the actual Baby? In the show 16 & Pregnant I feel as if they do not do a great job of actually highlighting the baby. Most episodes you do not even remember what the babies name is. I also think that the show deals more with portraying the issues and the effects it has on the teen parents and even their parents and does not show the complete effects that the arguing has on the baby itself. In the article The Children of Teen Parents it talks about how the baby can actually be effected by having teen parents. The article talks about how there is a higher rate of low weight pregnancies to teen moms and how the baby has a chance of not being able to succeed as well as babies born by mothers age 20 or older. It mentions that only 77% of children of teen parents graduate high school compared to 89% of the comparison group.
The one episode that I think of that kind of deals more then the baby and I think should deal even more with the baby is Janelle's episode. I felt as if she was not a very good mom and her own mother saw that she was abandoning her little boy and the mom and her boyfriend had to step in and take care of the baby boy.
These are the questions I would like to ask then:
Do you think 16 & Pregnant shows the effects of the actions the parents have one the babies?
Do you think babies born to teen mothers have an even start to life?
-Sam F.
i think the show shows a fair amount of the baby, but as the title suggests, it's more about the mom. i think since they are so young, it's hard to show their viewpoint; an interesting idea would be to do a follow up on these kids and see where their life leads them in 5-10 years and beyond.
ReplyDeleteit's difficult to have a child young, as we've seen. as it is now, teen mothers dont get support outside of their family and friends. if they received more help from the government, say food stamps, welfare, scholarships and such, i think it would be less hard on the mom/parents and thus less hard on the child to grow up in an environment like that.
I think the show does show some effects of the actions the parents have on their baby, but the show does focus more on the teen mom then anything else. I think babies that are born to teen mothers don't have an even start to life. First of all the baby might of not recieved the proper care before it was born. Like regular check ups and the mom taking good care of herself before the baby is born. Babies born to teen moms might not have a father in their life. There could be finicial problem because the teen might not have to support from her parents. The babies mom highest education might only be a high school dipolma. So her finding a good paying job won't be easy. Also her child might follow her footsteps and become a teen parent as well. Theres just so many more factors that can go on in this situation.
ReplyDeletethats my comment right above that I just left.
ReplyDeleteJamie
It is true that the show is definitely more about the parents, especially the mom. I agree with Cat that some sort of follow up in ten years or so would be great, though it might not be that realistic at this point in time - they're still babies! Another episode that featured the child more than most was Maci with Bentley. She seemed to be a very loving and responsible mother and the show made it seem as if he would "turn out ok." It would certainly be interesting to see a comparison between Bentley and Janelle's child for example, as well as the other children from the show.
ReplyDelete-Ami J.