Motherhood at 14

THE prize-winning author Hilary Mantel has opened up a public debate over teenage sex by saying that girls are ready to have babies at 14.

The 57-year-old novelist said society ran on a ''male timetable'' which dictated that women should have babies older.

''Having sex and having babies is what young women are about, and their instincts are suppressed in the interests of society's timetable,'' she said.

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My knee jerk reaction, (from a male, single, no children,

hence has no basis for sound opinion, but I know poverty as a child)

I am amazed that an educated women would would think that way.

What "male timetable" society would she prefer ? Taliban land ?, Bountiful ?

What is the appropriate mate for a 14 yr old mother, a 16 yr old boy, whose preoccupations are sports, video games, cars, impressing his buds etc.??? (Geeky shy boys don't get girls pregnant)

Or is it the 20,30,40 something with a job and status (don't we call that Statutory Rape ?)

Of course there is always the single mother option (who needs a father anyway?).

Lets change the child labour laws while we're at it, so she can work full time, at minimum wage, and hire a baby sitter.

Welfare and the new grandparents can pickup the slack, right !

Wonder what she thinks of this -

http://www.canadiancrc.com/Child_Poverty_in_Canada.aspx

Fourteen, in modern society, is too young. Up until the early 20th century, children and young adults were treated like "tiny adults," and given a great deal of responsibility. It isn't that children are incapable of handling responsibilities, it's that we live in a time when it's generally accepted that 14 year old children should be playing street hockey/video games/shopping at the mall instead of raising children.

On a personal level... I think it's folly for a woman to have children past a certain age. Women are simply not physically equipped to bear a child past the age of 30 (eggs start to degrade, higher risk of maternal trauma, higher risk of the child having special needs)... but they do it anyways, because they want to focus on other things first. I don't think it's right or wrong, just rather unnatural. So I guess I can see where this woman is coming from.

My 2 (or more, it seems) cents.

Finnish high school at least, the bare minimum of education.

Then the chances of her getting a decent income/ independance are greater than zero.

IMO it's not just about economics and biology.

Education is the best defence for everything (regardless of society's timetable).

I still hear this from time to time ; "keep them bare foot and pregnant".

(dumb and dependant) Makes me cringe.

''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 PhD,''' she said.

Huh. Interesting. I wonder what sort of support network she would have had. Funny she can go on about going back to school & getting her PhD when she is 30 is if it is that simple.

I know the last thing I was thinking of when I was 14 was having kids & raising a family.

Being a single momma in my early thirties can be stressful at times. And I was prepared when I had my child. I can't imagine at 14.

And like Suzirider pointed out, what kid at 14 or 16 is gonna want to have the responsibility of being a father? And as for an adult taking on that role, it's rather creepy that an adult would want to have children with a 14 year old.