Great example of leaving a child behind

[spindrifter]

Johnston speaks on Bristol Palin and baby

<snip>

The soft-spoken teenager discussed his relationship with Palin and how life has changed with fatherhood fast approaching. He agreed to talk despite the presidential campaign's advice in the days following Gov. Sarah Palin's nomination to avoid the media.

"They're not telling me anything right now," Johnston said as he checked his Blackberry. "It's pretty chill."

Not surprisingly, Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol's pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.

<snip>

Wasilla hockey coach Bill Sturdevant, who was invited to the wedding, said he was sorry to hear Johnston wasn't going to return for his senior year of high school. But he said he believes Johnston, a talented hockey player, will find his way.

<slightly more>

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27160532/

+++++++

What a great start--no high school diploma--not even talk of getting a GED.

[mrcheerful]

1. He sounds exactly like a whole lot of todays teens that see little hope of

any job outside of part time work or summer work. Sadly more and more teens today see education as a lost cause. A steady diet of local news along with friends working their tails off for a few bucks at Mc D's and little time to hang with friends plus school taking more time out of their life, kids aren't stupid, they just do stupid things like dropping out of school.

Like most teens, he saw a decent looking girl and said I need to see if I can get some off her. 2 things teens never see, 1) the parents, they usually met them after the first sexual encounter. 2) pregnant? How can you be pregnant, I_____________ enter the first excuse you can think of to fill in the blank on why the gf can't be pregnant. Is he a nit wit? Sure but so are 99% of teens out there, he just had more expensive tastes in his fun girl.

Am I sticking up for the kid? No, I'm just pointing out we are talking about a teen that like most teens out there just have one thought on their hormonal minds, can I get into her under pants? Everything else that happened in the teens life wasn't planed for or expected, like most teen fathers the poor kid now finds himself at the center of attention because of who bought his gf the under pants he got into.

You have permission to start flaming away.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. What does your last line mean?

Sorry, but I don't know what "flame away" means.

I read that article with the Johnston boy earlier today, and what struck me is that he's dropped out of high school just as his senior year is beginning to work as an apprentice carpenter on the North Slope. I guess that's considered a good career, but it struck me as a sad choice for such a young boy.

Just as he's leaving his childhood behind, he's now being presented with fatherhood.

Imagine this as our Second Family - a scandal-ridden professional woman/mother who didn't do a very good job of raising her kids, with a pregnant teenage daughter, a son in the Army in lieu of the slammer for selling drugs, and three younger children who have been schlepped from city to city to serve as props for their parents while their mother pursues a job for which she's not even remotely qualified.

Say they lose. Whatever will those kids' lives be like then? The pregnant teenager marries her boyfriend, has the baby (or vice versa), and then sits at home with the child while he's off working, as the professional mother/grandmother is somewhere else, trying to hold onto her job or seeking re-election. The younger one will, no doubt, be in charge of taking care of the newest baby, and the middle girl, who seems sweet as can be, is left to her own devices. Let's hope she learned something about birth control from her older sister, because her mother surely isn't about to do the right thing on that score.

[mrcheerful]

3. Flame away = some of the things said on DU about the teen

because of who's child it is that he knocked up.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. I haven't read them,

and I assume "flame away" means that people said mean things about the boy?

Your explanation was ambiguous, so I'll just draw my own meaning from it.

Thank you.

[mrcheerful]

5. Oh I thought you had read those

posts. I think he's is just another teen with more hormone's then brains, been there done stupid stuff except never got a play mate pregnant, though I did help one get rug burns on the chest, long story.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. Adolescents -

they're all ten feet tall and bulletproof. That's why youngsters are the ones the military wants. That's why test pilots are kids. That's why the cars crash when they get behind the wheel.

We survived. We're lucky. But we have to remember how it is for them.

Thanks again.