Michael and Brandon Keilen

[infooverload]

I have to say I was suprised by the high rate in NM. Anyone in NM care to give insight into why this might be. With the south you go oh Bible belt and it basically answers it. I am glad abstinence only education will no longer have federal government funding.

[backyard sylph]

50% might have just been a tossed-out number, but I have read of individual outliers which far surpass the average. There's a county in Texas; I think it's in or near Houston, with notoriously high teen pregnancy rates, and there are a few others here and there. They just don't affect their state average very much over all, because other places are much lower.

Few states are all one thing everywhere. I live in Ohio, where there are five metropolitan areas. But in between them, there's nothing but farmland. It wouldn't do to say Cincinnati and Columbus are very much alike. They just have more in common than they do with whatever's in-between.

The thing to do would be to compare districts within counties within the states. You'll have areas with few teen pregnancies, and areas with so many it seems ordinary.

[JesusCampSongs]

5 hours ago, infooverload said:

I have to say I was suprised by the high rate in NM. Anyone in NM care to give insight into why this might be. With the south you go oh Bible belt and it basically answers it. I am glad abstinence only education will no longer have federal government funding.

Not from New Mexico, but I'm a social worker in the rural-ish southeast, so I can kind of speak to what's going on. Adolescent pregnancy, in my opinion, has way less to do with individual factors like race or religion and way more to do with the socioeconomic realities in a geographic area. If you live in an economically depressed area, come from a dispossessed background (race, generational poverty, etc), and don't see a way out of where you are, there's really not a whole lot of reasons to not have kids young. In other words, if all you have to look forward to in life is working minimum-wage jobs and using aid programs to make up the difference between your wages and your bills, it doesn't matter if you have kids at 15, 25, or 30. Either way, you're in poverty, likely permanently. Add in the fact that having kids super young gets normalized in certain communities after a point, and it's really no surprise that teen pregnancy rates are high in some populations. 

Among the teens I work with, there's a huge class divide between those who are what I consider to be at risk of getting pregnant before they finish high school and those who aren't. The ones who feel they have something to lose are a lot more vigilant about their sex lives and using protection than the ones who don't. 

[PianoPounder]

When I graduated a decade ago, 10.4% of my classmates had a child or were expecting a child (in rural Indiana).

[medimus]

A good friend of mine and I always find it amazing how different expectations around relationships and pregnancies are in different places. We (and our families) have been friends since we were born, our mothers started and ran a business together and we went to the same schools until she moved back to the US with her family when we were nine. They moved to a tiny rural town and I stayed in this tiny European country, which is very urbanised. In her high school class, about 10 girls walked pregnant, and a bunch more already had children. In mine (grades 7-12) there was only one pregnant girl in the entire school the entire time I was there. And this was highly unusual. Also in the first few years after high school lots of her friends got married. In fact several of her friends got divorced before any of mine got married! We enjoyed comparing notes like that for a few years.

Thanks to the poster who posted the link to the teen birth rates across states. My country's teen birthrate is 5, half of Massachussets'(the lowest in the US). Of course that's birthrate, not pregnancy rate. I imagine those are quite different too. Here the teen abortion rate is 4, so teen pregnancy rate is 9. But I imagine in places that are very religious or where it's complicated/expensive etc etc to get an abortion the difference will be smaller. Also societal expectations. It's really quite interesting.

[Granwych]

18 hours ago, backyard sylph said:

50% might have just been a tossed-out number

It probably from our statistician genius, Ken Alexander.

[Nikedagain?]

On 8/1/2016 at 10:49 PM, PianoPounder said:

When I graduated a decade ago, 10.4% of my classmates had a child or were expecting a child (in rural Indiana).

Jeepers! I work at a Middle School (in the south), and we made it through this school year with NO (known) PREGNANCIES! 

This was huuuge! 

We were ecstatic. Isn't that kinda sad? 

[nausicaa]

On 8/1/2016 at 8:20 PM, JesusCampSongs said:

Not from New Mexico, but I'm a social worker in the rural-ish southeast, so I can kind of speak to what's going on. Adolescent pregnancy, in my opinion, has way less to do with individual factors like race or religion and way more to do with the socioeconomic realities in a geographic area. If you live in an economically depressed area, come from a dispossessed background (race, generational poverty, etc), and don't see a way out of where you are, there's really not a whole lot of reasons to not have kids young. In other words, if all you have to look forward to in life is working minimum-wage jobs and using aid programs to make up the difference between your wages and your bills, it doesn't matter if you have kids at 15, 25, or 30. Either way, you're in poverty, likely permanently. Add in the fact that having kids super young gets normalized in certain communities after a point, and it's really no surprise that teen pregnancy rates are high in some populations. 

Among the teens I work with, there's a huge class divide between those who are what I consider to be at risk of getting pregnant before they finish high school and those who aren't. The ones who feel they have something to lose are a lot more vigilant about their sex lives and using protection than the ones who don't. 

This is interesting. But one thing I do wonder is that wouldn't teenagers want to be young and selfish and go out and have fun for a while? I mean, having a kid at 16 curtails your fun immediately, so that you don't ever really get to just have minimal responsibilities as an adult. Whereas if you waited until 26, you'd get ten years of having fun and not having as many responsibilities (whether that fun is traveling and college or just going out drinking or to bonfire parties after work). This was a big motivator for immature 17 year old me to not get pregnant (totally ruin beach week, duh  )

I have cousins my age who live in a small town in the Rust Belt and their lives and outlooks are so different from mine. I really try to understand how they see things, but I've never understood that aspect of it. 

And I can understand how living in economically depressed area would make one feel that it doesn't matter if you have kids at 15 or 30, but I'd say in reality it makes a huge difference in how likely one is to escape poverty or at least having some stability when having children.

[JesusCampSongs]

3 hours ago, nausicaa said:

This is interesting. But one thing I do wonder is that wouldn't teenagers want to be young and selfish and go out and have fun for a while? I mean, having a kid at 16 curtails your fun immediately, so that you don't ever really get to just have minimal responsibilities as an adult. Whereas if you waited until 26, you'd get ten years of having fun and not having as many responsibilities (whether that fun is traveling and college or just going out drinking or to bonfire parties after work). This was a big motivator for immature 17 year old me to not get pregnant (totally ruin beach week, duh  

And I can understand how living in economically depressed area would make one feel that it doesn't matter if you have kids at 15 or 30, but I'd say in reality it makes a huge difference in how likely one is to escape poverty or at least having some stability when having children.

Most of the at-risk teens I work with started drinking and using drugs (or weed, at least) at around age 11. So if they wind up pregnant at 16, 17, or 18, they'll have already gotten a good half-decade of partying that puts my college years to shame under their belts. They also likely have comparatively young parents and grandparents who they can foist their kids off on (this is another generational cycle that tends to repeat itself) while they're out going wild. 

Some of them do take the long view, in that they don't want to be poor forever and are making efforts to escape the cycle. These are, by and large, the kids who are book-smart that do well in school-- and who get lots and lots of attention and validation from teachers, school personnel, and other adults that their less academically endowed/inclined peers get. This, in turn, makes them even less inclined to see an accidentally-on-purpose young pregnancy as a means of accessing attention, validation, love, etc. 

Kathryn Edin wrote a lot of books about this subject, and I highly recommend reading them. She mostly focuses on inner-city teens/young adults, but a lot of it is also applicable to a rural setting. 

[mstee]

I live in Ohio now. Moved here a few years ago from California. I'm in my mid twenties, and get questions at least weekly about when I'm having kids. None of my friends back home have kids yet. Most of my friends here in Ohio do (smaller city and rural area). So even though we aren't talking teen pregnancies (mostly), there is still a difference between where I'm from and where I live now. I mostly hear from others "why wait? It's better to have the energy of being a young parent" and "there is never a perfect time to have kids" to which I usually retort "there are better times than others".  My parents were older, and maybe not as energetic, but they had so much patience and understanding that a lot of times I don't see with my friends who are parents.  I love kids and would love to be a parent but I'm hoping to wait a little longer. 

[PianoPounder]

6 hours ago, Nikedagain? said:

Jeepers! I work at a Middle School (in the south), and we made it through this school year with NO (known) PREGNANCIES! 

This was huuuge! 

We were ecstatic. Isn't that kinda sad? 

These days, that seems like a major accomplishment!

There were two pregnancies in my middle school (different county, larger school system); an eighth grader was pregnant when I was in seventh grade, and in eighth grade, one of the girls in my grade was pregnant. I remember being shocked both times; I was definitely interested in boys, but NOT interested in sex. My cousin lost her virginity when we were in eighth grade (she was always in the district I graduated from), so middle school sex was more common at the time than I had realized.

[JordynDarby5]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 1:34 PM, Nikedagain? said:

Jeepers! I work at a Middle School (in the south), and we made it through this school year with NO (known) PREGNANCIES! 

This was huuuge! 

We were ecstatic. Isn't that kinda sad? 

Sad but true.

On ‎7‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 7:11 PM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

Heavens, where'd you go to school? Over half seems high. 

In the southwest. It was about twenty years ago.

[paulypepper]

On 7/28/2016 at 11:10 AM, HereticHick said:

I continued to be baffled about why Brandon  & his helpmeet haven't moved to Big Sandy yet. The end of the article article about Gothard headquarters in this month's Chicago magazine certainly implies that the headquarters is totally empty now:

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2016/Institute-in-Basic-Life-Principles-Hinsdale/

"On a recent afternoon at the colonnaded building in Hinsdale, the future did not look exciting. More like abandoned. No girls in ankle-length skirts floated in and out or strolled in the nearby park; no boys in dark suits and crisp white shirts tended the gardens or climbed on shuttle buses to destinations unknown. The parking lot stood empty. The normally well-manicured lawn looked a little forlorn. Even the sign that had once provided the lone hint of what the building represented was gone."

Okay maybe it's me, but does anyone else see the phallic spire/cupola on top of the building? Just throwing that out there!

[backyard sylph]

3 minutes ago, paulypepper said:

Okay maybe it's me, but does anyone else see the phallic spire/cupola on top of the building? Just throwing that out there!

I wouldn't have seen it that way if not pointed out, but I do find it bears a pale resemblance to my dog's erection. It's an amusing thought.

Yes, web warriors, we have a veterinarian-sanctioned reason he's still able to get those. And he is utterly uninterested in females, anyway.

[actuallyjessica]

in just a few short days, they will celebrate their first wedding anniversary. does anyone else feel like that time went really quickly?

[seraaa]

On ‎10‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 11:22 PM, Manda said:

Have they moved to Texas?  Has anyone heard?

It could be that they're part of the number who have yet to be relocated, and if Brandon has a mobile job, maybe they've elected to stay, at least for a while longer.

I know if I were them, I'd prefer to continue to live on the outskirts of a large city than in a small rural town.

[RoseWilder]

I'm really surprised they have made their Instagram private yet, what with all the inquiries they get into the state of their fertility on there. I think it would drive me crazy if I were them. 

[CorruptionInc.]

On 8/5/2016 at 11:49 AM, PianoPounder said:

There were two pregnancies in my middle school (different county, larger school system); an eighth grader was pregnant when I was in seventh grade, and in eighth grade, one of the girls in my grade was pregnant. I remember being shocked both times; I was definitely interested in boys, but NOT interested in sex. My cousin lost her virginity when we were in eighth grade (she was always in the district I graduated from), so middle school sex was more common at the time than I had realized.

This is a bit like where I went to High School.

Girls were pregnant at 13, 14 and some had abortions by or at that age too.

I was shocked - definitely into other people, but not sex at that time.

 

[nastyhobbitses]

On 8/2/2016 at 3:49 AM, PianoPounder said:

When I graduated a decade ago, 10.4% of my classmates had a child or were expecting a child (in rural Indiana).

Suburban/posh CT here. No pregnancies as far as I know when I graduated. There were rumors that a girl two years behind me had an abortion, but no one had kids. Even now 7 years later, I only know of one person who graduated with me who is confirmed to have a  child.

[paulypepper]

When I was in high school circa 1971-1975 We had one girl in the whole school who was pregnant, and she had the baddest assed 1970 Chevy Nova  with mag wheels and the Cherry Bomb mufflers. I don't know if I loved her car or her more back then

[backyard sylph]

We had very few in my high school, that is, that anyone knew about. I graduated in 1983. I remember a girl who was quite pregnant at the graduation ceremony, which was held in the football stadium. She burst out laughing at some point, so loud and hard, other people started laughing, too, and they had to pause the ceremony. Someone yelled, "the baby's tickling her in her arm pits!" and laughter erupted again...

Good times.

[VelociRapture]

9 hours ago, nastyhobbitses said:

Suburban/posh CT here. No pregnancies as far as I know when I graduated. There were rumors that a girl two years behind me had an abortion, but no one had kids. Even now 7 years later, I only know of one person who graduated with me who is confirmed to have a  child.

Also suburban CT here. We had at least one girl in my class who was pregnant our Sophomore year. She had a healthy little girl.

Some people got pregnant soon after High School. One girl I grew up with has a 9 year-old son. Another has three daughters and a step-daughter (she had her first maybe seven years ago. She married her husband a few months earlier.) 

I've been out of High School for ten years though, so more of us are getting married and having babies now.

[bashfulpixie]

I had one friend get pregnant in high school and decided to have the baby and give her up for adoption.  We talked about it, and she wanted to go to college and wanted her daughter to have the kind of life she wasn't able to give her at that point in time.

I'm now long out of high school and she has a couple of toddlers at home, but I've always given her props for her decision.  I don't know that I could have done it.

[nastyhobbitses]

2 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

Also suburban CT here. We had at least one girl in my class who was pregnant our Sophomore year. She had a healthy little girl.

Some people got pregnant soon after High School. One girl I grew up with has a 9 year-old son. Another has three daughters and a step-daughter (she had her first maybe seven years ago. She married her husband a few months earlier.) 

I've been out of High School for ten years though, so more of us are getting married and having babies now.

Yeah, I'm three years behind you; according to my co-workers at my last job, I haven't hit Wedding/Baby Shower Circuit age just yet. I still have a couple years until then (according to her it's around 27-28).

[season of life]

I can only recall seeing one hugely pregnant girl in my music class during my high school years. This is from 2011-2015. There were a lot of couples in my school, but so many of them were focused on classes, bands, parties, hanging out, and participating in the musicals that I assume they were hyper vigilant with contraceptives. It really was considered tacky and burdensome to be a teen parent.