Pendragons Princess

Living in the middle of Sprog Central (Tucson, Arizona to outsiders) when one comes across the relative of a fellow employee, one does not become too surprised when one hears that the sixteen year old relative has visitation rights. Yes, you heard right. So it appears the girl who got pregnant by this nice looking young man has physical custody of the child (who knows how old the kid is - in this city, the offspring could be as old as eight) while the very young father gets to see the child twice a week. I mean, this guy isn’t even old enough to vote, never mind old enough to legally drink alcohol. Yes, he is still in high school, thank goodness, although I do not know the educational fate of the girl. Hearing this sort of thing makes me at a loss for words but all I can think of is, “F’ed up big time.” No pun intended of course, since triple X-rated behavior seems to be the norm in a city that reputedly claims to be family oriented and family friendly. Yes, I know the two concepts radically contradict each other. But whatever. However this is not the first time I have met a teen who is a parent. I’d see many at the mall where I used to work - 15, 16 year old girls with strollers and infants in tow, sometimes with the boyfriend, sometimes with another girlfriend and her rugrat. Tucson is supposedly a “red” city, meaning it is largely conservative, yet out of wedlock sex prevails big time. It’s not just the Catholic population, either, although there has always been a very high rate of Mexican girls who get pregnant as teens. The non-Mexicans are quickly catching up when it comes to the premarital birth statistics. Ultimately the tax payer has to pick up the tab in these cases. It can be a challenge to be childfree where we live as my husband and I are but at least we have a real relationship versus those who are just crotchloafing.