Baby Assignment

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Hey – Instead of having to do the idiotic robotic baby, this is the alternate assignment. All I need you to do is answer the following fifteen prying questions about having children, then I’ll be out out of you hair. 

Thanks, 
Alex Griffin

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At what age did you have your first child?  20 Years Old

What was your first reaction when you found out you would be a parent?

        It was fabulous, very excited. I was very thrilled. 



What was good about having children at that age?

        Being young allowed me to understand them and play with them more. I had a little more time on my hands in those years and could relate to the feelings they were having, because I had gone through the same ones not so long ago.



Did you senses sharpen when you were pregnant?


        Yes, I was more aware of my surroundings. Almost all of my senses were heightened. 




How do you feel about how your child/ren is/are turning out?


        I personally think it was better that they were born earlier in that time because they can do more things then than they could now. They had more access to different places and could discover more things on their own. And they were alive to see many of the discoveries and explorations that occurred at that time.






Is there anything you wish had been different?

        No, not really I was really happy with my kids. I do not remember having anything I regretted. 




What kind of atmosphere or environment did/do you want your child/ren to grow up in?

        I wanted them to have loving understanding parents, and have fun. And one very important thing was to be responsible. But most of all I wanted them to have fun. 



Is there anything you couldn’t bear to smell, hear, see, or do, that would, so to speak, set off any alarm bells or make you feel queasy? (For example, my mother wouldn’t let anyone say “liver” and couldn’t eat pickles for fear of throwing up.)


        Pineapple, it made me feel sick to my stomach and have a bad headache. 





How did your friends and family react when you told them you were having a child?

        They were very happy too, they were so excited. Just the same reaction I had, 



Do you regret having children?


        Not at all. I wish I had more. Because they would always have someone to play with.




How old is/are your child?ren now?


        They are all in their 40’s. 




How do you feel about what your children have been exposed to in their lives so far?

        I feel sad they have been exposed to war. It’s sad they have been exposed to things that have been avoided. But it was nice to have them see some of the discoveries of that time. 


If you have two or more children, was it easier taking care of the second than the first? Third? Fourth?


                It was harder when I had one of my children she was sick all the time. It was a lot harder to take care of her. I had three children in two and a half years. My child after my sick one was a lot easier. I have 4 children total. 





If you could go back to the time when you were pregnant, would you tell or warn yourself about anything? Perhaps about the child, or about what would help you before and/or after pregnancy?

        I think I would have put my first child in a private school. Because I think that he had a learning disability. It would have helped him later in life. 



Name: Jackie D’amico 

Phone Number: 941-544-8885

Current Age: 71

Contacted: Phone



        This article stresses many facts about the performance of teen mothers in schools. They found that less than one-third of teens who begin their families before age 18 ever earn a high school diploma and only 1.5% earn a college degree by the age of 30. This article also discusses the topic of health. Adolescents who have baby’s in many cases show poor weight gain and sexually transmitted diseases. Later in their life they have found a portion of these woman have become obese more so than those who had their baby’s after their teenage years. Teen pregnancy can even be linked to poverty, like this article does successfully. “A 1990 study showed that almost one-half of all teenage mothers and over three-quarters of unmarried teen mothers began receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child.” Finally the article relates the topic of teen mothers to inadequate parenting. It states that children born to teen mothers are at a higher risk of poor parenting by their mother and father. They parents are typically too young to handle the very demanding job of being a devoted parent. One example they put out in the open which I believed to be very true was that the parents themselves are not able to expose their child or children to the kind of environment a full grown adult can and has the resources to do.

The Guttmacher Institute. (2006) U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity. New York: The Guttmacher Institute.

Hoffman, S. (2006). By the Numbers: the Public Costs of Teen Childbearing. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.









        This article is centered around the emotional feelings and concerns of the pregnant teens mother and/or father. It explains that this pregnancy can affect the entire family if very negative ways. But at this point the teenager needs the parents more than ever. The article then explains to parents what their teen might be feeling. They explain feelings of terror, awkard social situations and even physical feelings such as morning sickness.  After explaining many feelings the mother may be feeling they explore much deeper into the father and his feelings. They explain the some boys may welcome the chance to be involved with their children, others might feel frightened and guilty and may need to be encouraged to face their responsibilities. The article is clearly making the statement that whether you are the parent of a teen father or mother parental help is very important. Finally, the article explains the risks of being a pregnant teenage mother: high blood pressure, fetal death, anemia, labor and delivery (such as premature labor and stillbirth), and a low birth-weight infant. 
Martin, J.A., Hamilton, B.E., Ventura, S.J., Menacker, F., Park, M.M., & Sutton, P.D. (2002). Births: Final data for 2001. National Vital Statistics Reports, 51 (2).












        This article explains many facts in a influencial and convincing way. It states that out of 29 million young teens between the ages of 13 and 19, approximately 12 million have had sexual intercourse. Of this group, more than 1.1 million became pregnant. I found these numbers supprisingly high. Later in the article the author discuses teenage birthrate and explains that about five percent of U.S. Teenagers alone give birth each year, and a study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute showed teen birthrates here to be twice as high as Canada, England, and Wales, three times as high as Sweden, and seven times higher than the Netherlands. This shows that U.S. Teenage control is currently not being monitored enough. The article then reads “78 percent of births to teenagers are first births. However, 19 percent are second births, and four percent can reach as high as three or more.” This means the sooner a teenager gives birth after initiation of intercourse, the more likely she is to have subsequent births while still in her teens. 

Zellman, G. L. "The Health Belief Model and Teenage Contraceptive Behavior: From Theory to Operation." Paper presented at the 92nd annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, August 1984. ED 263 482.