Reply #26: I had several friends get pregnant when I was that age

[skygazer]

It really was a wake-up call of sorts for me. I don't really think it's likely your daughter will see her friend's life as "normal" - I think it's more likely she'll see it as something she doesn't want for herself. I know that's how it was with me and most of my friends when we saw what happened with the girls who did have babies.

Most of them dropped out of school. They weren't able to do the things the rest of us did without thinking about it because they were tied down with babies. It didn't look like fun at all and it made us uncomfortable. We didn't really feel like we had anything in common with them anymore and gradually, they got sort of shut out from the group.

I would use this as an opportunity to point out how these girls' lives are going to change drastically and how much better it is to put that change off. Not in a lecturing sense but in a talking to, not at, sense.

And I also think it's not a bad idea to say something along the lines of, "It's too bad they didn't feel able to discuss birth control options with their parents." I'd rather have my kid ask me if they could get on the pill than tell me she was pregnant.