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Mom at 14? Novelist Says It's the Right Age to Have a Baby
Filed under: In The News
Hilary Mantel holds a copy of her novel 'Wolf Hall' after being awarded the 2009 Man Booker prize in London on October 6, 2009. Credit: Ben Stansall, AFP/Getty Images
Your 14-year-old is ready to have a baby. So says award-winning British novelist Hilary Mantel, who caused a ruckus when she said the age at which women have children is dictated by men.
The London Telegraph reports that the hubbub erupted after an interview in Stella, the newspaper's weekend style magazine, in which Mantel, 57, discusses the natural instincts that drive procreation and says she was competent enough at age 14 to run a household.
"Having sex and having babies is what young women are about, and their instincts are suppressed in the interests of society's timetable," she tells Stella. "I think it is that men's lives have set the timetable. Men reach a sort of sexual peak when you are 20, a social peak when you are 40. There is this breed of women for whom society's timetable is completely wrong."
Mantel, who won the Man Booker Prize last year for her novel "Wolf Hall," calls society at large "incredibly hypocritical" about teenage sex.
"I was perfectly capable of setting up and running a home when I was 14, and if, say, it had been ordered differently, I might have thought 'Now is the time to have a couple of children and when I am 30 I will go back and I'll get my Ph.D.,'" she says.
Her comments sparked a vehement response on the heels of a report issued last week revealing that the British government failed to meet its goal -- set in 1999 -- of slashing the country's teen pregnancy rate in half, despite the fact that teen pregnancy rates declined by 4 percent between 2007 and 2008.
According to the Telegraph, the 2008 figures for teen births in England show that 40.4 of every 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 get pregnant. Officials vowed to expand sex education and to promote the use of contraceptives, even going so far as to put condom vending machines in schools and colleges.
An unnamed spokesman for the UK's Department for Children, Schools and Families tells the Telegraph that Mantel's remarks are "completely out of line" with government policy.
"Our strategy is to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies and offer age-appropriate sex education to young people. There are no plans to lower the age of consent from 16," he tells the newspaper. "Young people should delay sex until they are ready. Teenage parents and their children are more likely to suffer health, emotional and economic problems than their peers."
However, not everyone disagrees with Mantel's point of view. According to the UK's Guardian, Dr. Claire Alexander of the London School of Economics and the editor of a study titled, "Teenage Parenthood: What's the Problem," says teen mothers can be motivated to change the direction of the their lives after giving birth.
"Young parenthood can make sense and be valued and can even provide an impetus for teenage mothers and fathers to strive to provide a better life for their children," she tells the newspaper.
Related: Sex in the Media Influencing Teen Pregnancies
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-01-2010 @ 11:34PM
Amanda said...Umm, I don't think she was saying that kids are financially responsible enough to raise a child when they're 14. She's just saying something that IS the truth, people are made to have children at a young age and it is society that makes it seem wrong. If you took a history class you would know teens have been having babies for ages and it was perfectly acceptable until recently.
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3-04-2010 @ 4:05PM
Natasha said...I agree with you Amanda. We are built to have children when we are younger. So many women today are having fertility issues because they wait until they're in their 30s. I'm not saying anyone should have a child before they're ready but its true that biologically we are made to have children more easily at a younger age and probably could be psychologically ready if we're raised a certain way.
3-02-2010 @ 11:07AM
LS said..."[English Officials are]...even going so far as to put condom vending machines in schools and colleges."
"Young people should delay sex until they are ready..." ~unnamed spokesman for UK's Department for Children, Schools and Families
What a double message the officials are sending to their children. Don't have sex. Here's a condom. Don't have sex. Here's a condom machine IN YOUR SCHOOL because your parents don't want you to have sex either. Don't have sex. But here's a condom, just in case.
And before all of you start hurling fireballs at my house - think about it.
You don't want your kids to get hurt by a gun, so you educate them about how dangerous that gun is, going so far as to completely ban even a drawing of one in a school setting, and eliminating water- and nerf-guns from their playthings.
You don't want your kids to do drugs, so you tell them of the horrors of drug use, show them degenerative pictures of addicts, and bring up Amy Winehouse's web page.
You don't want them to drink, so you talk openly about drunk driving, the addictive power of alcohol, the destructive nature of binge drinking.
Do you then turn around and hand them a gun, a joint and a beer? NO!!!
But, because sex is such a popular topic in the media - it sells damn near everything from food to cars to drugs - we must indoctrinate our children at younger and younger ages, so we can sell crap, and justify it by saying, "oh, they're going to do it anyway, it's natural curiosity!". Forget their childhood, forget their emotional and physical well-being, forget even consistent parenting and setting a good example, just give them a hunk of latex, and tell them all will be well.
***
As for this woman and her "having babies at 14 is appropriate" ... she has a point, physically speaking. Yes, as Amanda points out, the human body can do amazing things, including bearing children starting around age 14. But because our society has "evolved" (and sometimes I really wonder if we haven't DEvolved), children at 14 are not emotionally ready to have children. Maybe they were during the Medieval Era, but not now. And as for men pushing it??? I know men who are 40 who mature enough for kids! I certainly don't think they're ready at 14.
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3-03-2010 @ 9:38PM
Jason said...YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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3-05-2010 @ 11:27PM
nelly said...@age 14 ...all you wanna do is have fun....from 14 until about 22 yrs old..you want to meet as many guys as possible and date more than half of who you meet...not having babies...hey it is not playing house with dolls and made up daddy's... Forget about having babies while you are a teen...
ENJOY LIFE, EXPERIENCE LIFE AND ALL THE JOY THOSE STAGES BRING>>>
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4-25-2010 @ 11:09PM
lena said...I am here to sa maybe having a baby at young age is better on your body but not at 14 years old who the world wants their children out having sex at 14 and their daughters gettg pregnant I had six kids in all a girl at 14 a boy at 17 a boy at 21 a girl at 27 and a girl at 29 then my last girl at 30 and being pregnant at 14 years old is so scary and I dont recommend anybody saying oh its ok go ahead and get pregnant your old enough and saying oh I was ready to raise a baby I had the knowledge to do ths yell I did have knowledge and maturity but I was 14 years old and not ready to be a mommy .I found out I was pregnant and moved out that day my mama cried I wish I wouldve stayed at home because I wasn't ready to be a housewife and not ready to be a mama that is foolish to say its ok at 14 years old no matter what the circumstances are.Good luck to anybody's child that is pregnant I know what its like.
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