In Victorian England, teenagers who were "courting" would be supervised at all times by a chaperone. This was, of course, to prevent any hanky panky. At most, a couple was allowed to hold hands! This stodgy manner of dating might have been annoying, but it certainly had its rewards.
Nowadays, teens have no chaperones, and fertility is at the forefront. Everything about popular culture today suggest sex. The music teens listen to, the clothes teens wear, and the movies teens see are all inundated with sex. So, it comes as no surprise that many teen couples end up having children together. Many of these couples probably want to kick fertility in the face. That is, if fertility actually had a face in the first place.
It's not as if teenagers aren't warned about the dangers of premarital sex in the first place. High school health classes discuss fertility at length, and warn couples that they should at the very least, have safe sex. How reassuring those classes must be to the parents of teens who find themselves grandparents in their late thirties and early forties!
It's almost too easy for teenagers to find places to be alone together. Shockingly, some parents actually condone the sexual conduct between their teenage children by allowing them to do that in their own house! These parents reason that at least they know where their teenagers are.
These same parents probably assume that their teenagers are smart enough to have safe sex. Well, they really shouldn't assume such a thing. Yes, birth control methods like "the pill" and condoms are not 100% effective, but if more teen couples were actually using them, then they wouldn't find themselves early parents.
Imagine having children while still a child. Yes, it was done often in early times, but that was back when the life expectancy was no more than forty! Nowadays, people are living longer, and responsible couples generally wait until they are at least in their mid-twenties before they start having children.
Teenagers often think that they are invincible, and figure that they won't get pregnant if they forget the condom "just that one time". Well, it only takes once to conceive! Look at Jamie Lynn Spears, for example. Here was a young teenage actress who was successful, and everything changed for her once she got pregnant by accident. Her show is over, and now she's changing diapers instead of reading scripts.
Ironically, some of these teenagers deliberately get pregnant, because they think it would be "fun" to have a baby. Many of these teens come from troubled backgrounds, in which they didn't get love, so now a baby is supposed to provide that love for them. These same teens get an unfortunate reality check when they realize how much work it takes to be a parent. Bottom line: these teens have their entire lives ahead of them, which includes plenty of time to have children – after they have the maturity and the financial means to support them, of course.
