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A very interesting discussion, if you have kids in the UK!!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/2 ... 52650.html

Beth is nearly 16. She has loads of friends and has many of them round to our house for get to gethers. I only know of one girl, whio has a twin brother, who's parents aren't married. Their dad and mum are still together.
The vast majority of her friends parents are still together, in fact it's a major talking point of any parents split up.
Of all the parties that Beth has had, I've never had any bother with the kids. They are all polite and well behaved. I'm not saying they aren't a bit lively when I'm out of sight and out of mind.
The worst thing I've had was when someone had a poo in a tyre which was one of a load keeping the silage pit together. I made Beth take a picture of it and out it on Facebook asking who was the culprit. On one ever claimed it.

I think a factor that's been left out of the article, is probably the fact that many of these cohabiting couples who've split, probably had their children at a very young age - I mean we have 14, 15, 16 year olds on average having children now, which is ridiculous.

My parents have been together 40 years, another friends folks have just celebrated 42 years. I'm not so sure marriage makes a difference, you don't need that piece of paper to be in a committed family relationship.

I don't know any 14 15 or 16 year old mothers

Come on BM, you read about it all the time, it's the latest fashion accessory for the young and trendy - to have a baby. It's such a huge problem in some areas, that some schools now have creches.

In 2005 the UK had the highest rate of under 16's pregnancies of Western Europe, that has dropped just slightly in recent years, but still remains a massive problem.

Chocoholic wrote:Come on BM, you read about it all the time, it's the latest fashion accessory for the young and trendy - to have a baby. It's such a huge problem in some areas, that some schools now have creches.

I'm not talking about what I read in the papers. I'm talking about the kids I know. Beth goes to a big school. I don't know of any kids who have kids of their own.
There are over 1000 kids there, I don't know them all obviously, Year 10 is the biggest year group. I don't know of any of those 14/15 year olds who have kids or have left school to have a child. It would be the talk of the town if they had.
There certainly isn't a creche at either of our local senior schools.

BM, sadly the article and stuff we're talking about is a bit wider than just your world. You don't have to constantly relate to your daughter and her friends, the UK is a bit bigger than that.

It's a massive problem and one that's not going to be dealt with in a short time. Education is the way to go.

"There are lies, damned lies and statistics" then of course, on top of that, there are flagrantly misleading newspaper articles and thread titles!

Dillon wrote:"There are lies, damned lies and statistics" then of course, on top of that, there are flagrantly misleading newspaper articles and thread titles!

I know, I thought it was going to be something exciting like a weird disease wiping people out of something - oh the disappointment.