Baby Born to 13 Year Old Father
February 16, 2009 by Eliza Ferree
Filed under News & Media
A newborn girl was born earlier this week, normally I’d be congratulating the happy couple but this time it’s a 15-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy. Umm, exactly when do you say enough is enough. The story itself is bigger than that though, try to follow along. The newborn baby has been named Maisie Steadman.
The UK has published a story about a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year girl being allowed to sleep in the same bed together. Now the girl has given birth and they BELIEVE he is the dad. When I say believed that actually means there are several others claiming to be the father of the newborn girl as well. It’s funny in a way, isn’t it normally the other way around? The boy/guy always claiming NOT to be the father. Now here you have two other guys that Chantelle Steadman, the new mom, (age 15) may have been with.
Here are the possible fathers:
Alfie Patten, age 13, the one that is BELIEVED to be the dad.
Tyler Barker, age 14, he claims to have slept in her bed 9 months ago and is now worried.
Richard Goodsell, age 16
According to Chantelle though, it was only Alfie and everyone else is making false claims. Alfie’s mom, Nicola Patten wants a paternity test to get it all over and done with. Alfie is also claiming that he will support his child and her mom. I must ask, exactly how will he provide for them? He hasn’t finished school, no job, etc. Okay, I guess what he really means is that HIS PARENTS will be providing for his child and his child’s mother.
Many will argue these two were of consenting age, this is not the case though in Britain. You must be at LEAST 16 years old, both were underage.
What’s your take on it? Should we just be okay and congratulate them or should we be doing something more to prevent this type of thing from happening? If so, what? Looking forward to the comments on this one.
The parents should be prosecuted for allowing this to happen.
Also this girl slept with many boys. No morals. Shame.
Ok, I see alot of these stories come up with this ‘for shame” crap. Fact is kids have been experimenting with sex for the first time between the ages of 11-16 for centuries. I was 12 when I first tried out heavy petting (with a concenting girl my own age), and 15 when I had my “first time”. I, personaly don’t see the issue with kids playing at this age, and I think the deamonisation of these kinds of things LEADS to teen pregnancies. They aren’t gonna stop, but if adults, especialy parents, don’t aknowledge this and take this into account, they’ll go in blind and have no idea what’s going on. There’s my first point.
Secondly: Age of consent. Who do you prosecute when both ‘offenders’ are under age? Technicaly, both are guilty of penerative sex with a minor… but with each other? Then you have the fun job of deciding who’s the real victim, and who’s the real purpetrator. Sure, the girl was the one who got pregnant, but the poor boy hardly had that option did he? And c’mon, a 13 year old boy, a 15 year old girl? Genders aside (and in consentual encounters it’s nearly always the girl’s idea anyways), it’s fairly obvious who’s idea it was to go ahead with it all.
You also mention other possible fathers, and Sarah claims that a girl who sleeps with than 3 boys in a… 5 week period? Is lacking in morality and shameful. To be honest, I think this shows your ignorance, and a lack of your own morality. Just because it isn’t the kind of thing you would do, does not make it wrong. We are at our most sexualy avctive from 15 on to about 25, and so we’re going to have a lot of sex in this period of time. I have known people around that age to have sex with three different guys in a 24 hour period, one in particular is a very dear freind of mine. Not only is she moraly secure, she is one of the kindest and most tolerant people I know. She is not dishonest, she is incredibly loyal, and to my knowledge she has never done a thing to hurt anyone. And yes, she is monogomous when in a relationship where that’s the agreed way to go.
As to the issue of the kid. The girl decided to have the baby. That shows she already has made one moral decision on her stance on abortion. A big step, a scary step, and, to be honest, a fairly mature step. You may argue that she’s too young to understand the true meanings or whatever, but the fact that she has made her own decision on that, and is prepared to live with it (I see no mention of adoption anywhere…) proves, at least to me, that she is capable of that decision.
Eliza, you state that “Except he won’t be supporting the child, his parents will be…”. Financialy, yes, you’re correct. In fact, I’d expect ANY parents of a young couple, under age or not, do a huge ammount of the financial side of things early on, reguardless. I know my mother and father sought finacial aid from their parents when I was born, and they were 29 and 33 respectivly at the time. Yes, the ammount of money required will be greater than if they were older, I agree… but RARELY are new couples entirely self-sufficient at the time of their first born.
Finaly, I’d just like to say this: I’ve been wandering around the net, seeing reports on this story all over the place, and time and time again I come across people claiming this “shows the decadence of our time” or “in my day…”. I’d just like to remind those people of two things:
Firstly, check your history. Time was this 15 year old would be on her second or even third child, and married to someone twice to three times her age.
Secondly: Any time a person has sex, there is a risk of having a child. There are precautions, but not one is 100% effective, even a vasectamy has a slight chance of self-correction. As I’ve already pointed out, kids will have sex this age, even if you lock your daughter in a tall tower in the middle of nowhere prince charming can still come along. So maybe those parents of kids this age need to remember that their child will fuck when they want to, and should eductate the kids so when they do decide to go at it, they won’t be in the dark about it all, but prepared with the knowledge to protect themselves approrpiatly.
Good on the parents of these kids for supporting them, good on the kids for putting up with the abuse unleashed on them by a world of judgemental adults who almost certainly had more than a few acts of guilty pleasure in the past themselves.
Woah, Al… chill.
Yeah, okay, kids are going to have sex.
But if parents are absolutely fine with it, and don’t set up any boundaries, then we’ll see a lot more of this crap.
Parents are parents to put the shame factor in these types of situations. It’s not right or healthy to have sex/babies as a teenager. And in most English speaking societies, not having sex as a young person is seen as a moral. So Sarah was in a way right about this Chantelle girl having no morals.
I don’t agree with you about teenage girls wanting sex (and I’m speaking as a teenage girl), and I think it’s sexist and rude that you say that. From what I know, young teenage boys (12, 13, 14) want sex a lot more than older boys.
But anyways, this whole situation is irresponsible and disgusting. Yes, we don’t know the girl but it seems that she and her family do lack some ethics.
If the kid has the balls to get someone pregnant, I say he’s got the BALLS to grow up fast and face the consequences!
As a new mother of my own 3 week newborn, I realize this may be alot to ask of children so young. That’s why I WAITED 31 years to have my baby!
The parents have to face the facts WITH their son, after all, they are responsible for allowing such a bittersweet, life-changing event to occur in the first place!
These teenagers are going through hell right now, and articles like this arent helping matters. Instead of shifting the blame, think about them. They have made a very moral decision to keep the baby, and from what it looks like, they claim to be very good parents, and you know what? I believe them. I am not suggesting all 13 year olds go out, have sex and make babies, but these things do happen, and these kids need support. Another thing, I run a young parents program, and I have found that the majority of the teenagers that come (between 13-20), are actually infact, extremely devoted, mature and responsible parents. Leave these kids alone, and go and bitch about something else!!
Yeah right. Most teen parents are very immature and aren’t great parents. I grew up in an area where lots of teens were having sex and getting pregnant. I had friends have babies in middle school. I never wanted that for my life. I waited until I was 27 to have my son. I saw neglect, emphasis on partying more than parenting, poor parenting skills, no “teaching” the child anything, tv as a sitter, poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction, crime, it was horrid.
This is just utterly disgusting and absurd… enough said…