By Ali Precious Lydia
Not all parents are ready to be a parent. In Nigeria, according to the National Population Commission, 23 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 years have started childbearing.
Based on studies, about 400,000 unplanned births occur annually in Nigeria and half of these births are to teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years. (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1996).
Adolescent childbearing is more common in developing countries where about one in every six births is to women under twenty. Young girls in this situation have a high tendency of leaving their babies with people who should never be in the care of a baby like the young man who carried a baby girl and forced in her mouth what looked like a wrap of Indian hemp in a viral video on 10 January, 2023. How disheartening!
To begin with, parenting teens are parents who are less than 20 years old having to care for their babies while they are in secondary school or its equivalent. There are lots of teenagers who should still be under their parents’ care, warmth and guidance, currently caring for their children.
A child they lack the mental, physical and financial ability to care for. Several reasons are responsible for the current hike in the number of teens parenting, ranging from: lack of knowledge of sex education, inadequate access to contraceptives, early child marriage, sexual violence, peer pressure, and curiosity to mention but a few.
On one hand, most parents contribute to teen parenting by not teaching their children sex education at home but leaving their wards to their teachers at school to educate them on sex education. At this age, children are known to be very curious and want to experiment with things, they end up finding themselves in complicated situations of having to care for a baby, Baby carrying baby. Also, the teenagers at this point have to decide to continue with schooling or drop out to work, to make ends meet. A phase as this, is where parental support is needed. Sadly, this is the point where most parents care less for their children, making them drop out of school and having to most times start a long journey of poverty.
On the other hand, teens parenting is not entirely bad if the teenagers get adequate support from the parents, friends and teachers at school, they will be able to walk the journey of raising a child with less stress. As they will have time to take care of themselves as they take care of the baby who will grow strong and thrive well with parents who are physically, mentally and financially stable. Parenting teens need to be with their parents till they are done with schooling. Finishing school is the most important privilege a parenting teen can have access to as it will help pave way for a better and brighter future not just for them, but their child.
To sum it up, parenting teens left to care for themselves and their children may turn out to be a disaster. However, with proper knowledge and training on how to care for a child, parental backing, access to education and financial support can turn what seem to be an unwanted pregnancy into a wanted child and a blessing in disguise.
Ali Precious Lydia is of the Department of English Language, Lagos State University, Ojo.
