I remember when sitting my O-levels, summer 1987, there were about 300 of us in the hall, several girls were so heavily pregnant it was a running joke that there were ambulances on standby to rush them to the local hospital should their waters break.....the school included the town's largest council estate in its catchment area. My boys both go/went to that same school and how things have changed. There's a large groups of kids so befuddled they don't know if they're Arthur or Martha so choose to be neither 😆 PSHE lessons have them so scared the thought of sex makes them want to vomit....just what has society done to our young people?
We've always had open and honest conversations with our lads, reinforcing respect for both yourself and your partner, consent and responsibility. But that it should be fun and something wonderful between two people.
Eldest swears he's never going to drink. Youngest will be shitfaced the nano second he turns 18 🤣
Interesting essay! In “After the Black Death” by George Huppert he cites a willful zero poplation growth by the peasants in a town he studied in Brittany that exactly tracks with your point (although obviously their situation was much more dire). They went so far as to put off marriage until an older member of household died so it was a one for one in terms of admittance. This was before birth control, sex ed, or any of that… they just responded to financial incentives.
Teen pregnancies were embarrassing for all families involved but in reality not that much different to what everyone else just ended up doing 5 years later. Leave school, get a mundane job, get married, have kids, die. Thus the stigma didn’t last.
The saddest thing though, is that even if white lightning still existed, these little squares that pass for teens these days wouldn’t drink it.
Interesting correlation...I wonder if there was a similar incident in the US that correlates with the "baby bust." Maybe when the federal govmint forced all the states to raise their drinking ages to 21?🤔
As the product of a teen pregnancy I'm not sure I 100% disapprove...except for the removal of White Lightning, of course...
Probably not. Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act on July 17, 1984. U.S. birthrates began to decline in earnest around 2007-08, which coincides with the Great Recession.
I remember when sitting my O-levels, summer 1987, there were about 300 of us in the hall, several girls were so heavily pregnant it was a running joke that there were ambulances on standby to rush them to the local hospital should their waters break.....the school included the town's largest council estate in its catchment area. My boys both go/went to that same school and how things have changed. There's a large groups of kids so befuddled they don't know if they're Arthur or Martha so choose to be neither 😆 PSHE lessons have them so scared the thought of sex makes them want to vomit....just what has society done to our young people?
We've always had open and honest conversations with our lads, reinforcing respect for both yourself and your partner, consent and responsibility. But that it should be fun and something wonderful between two people.
Eldest swears he's never going to drink. Youngest will be shitfaced the nano second he turns 18 🤣
Interesting essay! In “After the Black Death” by George Huppert he cites a willful zero poplation growth by the peasants in a town he studied in Brittany that exactly tracks with your point (although obviously their situation was much more dire). They went so far as to put off marriage until an older member of household died so it was a one for one in terms of admittance. This was before birth control, sex ed, or any of that… they just responded to financial incentives.
Teen pregnancies were embarrassing for all families involved but in reality not that much different to what everyone else just ended up doing 5 years later. Leave school, get a mundane job, get married, have kids, die. Thus the stigma didn’t last.
The saddest thing though, is that even if white lightning still existed, these little squares that pass for teens these days wouldn’t drink it.
I read all 987 words with due care and attention and I still don't know how to make babies. Boooo!
Not to belabour the point, Boychuk. But it rhymes with Slight Heightening.
🤣🤣🤣
Interesting correlation...I wonder if there was a similar incident in the US that correlates with the "baby bust." Maybe when the federal govmint forced all the states to raise their drinking ages to 21?🤔
As the product of a teen pregnancy I'm not sure I 100% disapprove...except for the removal of White Lightning, of course...
Crazy. By 21, I was an non-commissioned officer of the sauce.
I didn’t really start drinking until I went to University, but I made up for lost time!😂
Probably not. Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act on July 17, 1984. U.S. birthrates began to decline in earnest around 2007-08, which coincides with the Great Recession.