Teenage Parent

Someone who has a child at a young age. I am a teenage parent, - I'm not a slut, nor am I stupid. People need to stop being so horrible to teenage parents just because they have children young. Yes, there are bad teenage parents out there - just as there are bad ADULT parents! Many people believe that because we got pregnant young we must have slept around. This is completely untrue. Many teenage parents I know, myself included, fell pregnant to boyfriends that we had been with for a couple of years. Lastly, in New Zealand (where I'm from) there are many Teenage Parent Units. These are schools specifically designed for the education of teenage parents. The parents work from Correspondence School books and attend classes with teachers within the school. The age limit is 21, so there is a long time for the mothers (and sometimes fathers) to complete their education - most then go on to university! I understand that many people have misconceptions about teenage parents, I was one of those people before I became a parent myself. All I'm asking is for you to make no assumptions and don't judge us all by one stereotype!