I weighed in on recent conversations regarding age and parenting over at RH Reality Check. While young people face way more stigma for parenting than those in the “older parents” category do–the way to help both those groups succeed is surprisingly similar.
The commonality between the conversation about teen parents and the conversation about older parents is that the solutions which could address the challenges that result are not so different. If we as a society created systems that supported families to a greater extent, taking the pressure off of individuals to provide for their own across the lifespan, we might find ourselves with improved outcomes for kids regardless of their parents age. Rather than trying to convince people, especially women, to give birth in the socially-acceptable and medically-sanctioned 15-year window between college and age 35, why not change the way our society support families, so that whenever the moment for parenting arises, people have the support they need to do it successfully?
Read the whole thing here.
Radical Doula 