We’ve noticed a surge in the number of our female employees who are single moms. It is not uncommon here to find a young (in her early 20s) and single female staff with a ballooning stomach.
Last week while I was at the showroom of Ford Cainta, I had a chat with two young boys running around our showroom. They told me their eldest sister gave birth to a girl. She’s 17, in high school, and her boyfriend, presumably a school mate of hers, is not prepared to take on that big responsibility to be a teenage daddy so he disappeared.
A while ago, a female employee in Makati showed up with a 4-year-old boy. She’s 20 – 21. She had the boy when she was 16?
If there are many young moms, there are also as many young dads. Syempre, sperm donors.
In our town, sangkatutak rin ang nabubuntis. Pagala-gala ang mga bata, they mingle with the opposite sex. Parents are busy or complacent their children are just around the corner, or at their friend’s house.
My impression is that adolescent pregnancies are more prevalent in lower-income groups although it also happens in the affluent segment. I see more educated, affluent ladies who are in their 30s, who have remained single, no child, no boyfriend. Or educated women postpone having a baby.
There is no single solution to this serious problem. We cannot prevent teenage pregnancies because young people like to engage in sex. But I think the following government-led programs could help minimize the number of adolescent girls getting pregnant:
population control, reproductive health, responsible parenthood, sex education as young as 10 years old ( because there are kids now who get pregnant at 12). And of valuable importance is parents’ coaching and active involvement in the day to day activities of their children.
