It would seem teenage pregnancy is no longer the issue in South Africa, as primary school pupils are fast overtaking their seniors.
According to Netwerk24, reports released on March 30 indicate that about 21 000 school girls were pregnant in the 2013/14 financial year. 717 of those girls are still in primary school.
The most pregnancies were in Gauteng, with 5 273.
To say this is shocking would be an understatement – things are way too different now when compared to when I was a teenager.
I cannot help but ask myself – what the hell are these children eating? Is it their hormones, or are they just victims of this messed up society we live in?
Please forgive my ignorance, but I just cannot understand how a primary school pupil can be thinking about sex, let alone doing it.
At that age, my sister and I were still playing house with my dolls and I didn’t even know what sex was. Even in high school, I was still scared of boys. To think there are children out there as young as 11 who are having sex, I cringe at the thought.
So who should we blame for this sorry state of affairs? I know South Africans like blaming other people because that seems to always make things easier somehow. If you want to know what I’m talking about, go visit any of the news websites or have a look on social media and you will see just how my fellow South Africans like blaming other people while they are out there doing nothing to solve the crisis.
They would much rather become the faceless commentators we see every day on social media, blaming everyone they can think of but hardly ever coming up with any workable solutions to the problems they are so quick to moan about.
Since this is my column and I pretty much write what I think, when it comes to teenage pregnancy I think blaming the government alone, as we all like to do, would be unfair.
So, I am going to go ahead and say this teenage pregnancy issue is not going anywhere as long as we still have parents who think teaching children about sex and pregnancy is the teacher’s job.
I think this teenage pregnancy crisis also boils down to discipline. I am not going to blame the lack of knowledge and not having access to proper health care because these children have access to more information than I ever did when I was their age. How many school-going children do you know who don’t have smart phones? Not many I’m sure.
Secondly, I think some parents have no clue what discipline is and I’m saying that as a parent, not a parenting expert. I have seen so many parents wanting to become ‘the cool’ mom and they forget that the child needs to be disciplined. It is acceptable for your child to ‘hate’ you sometimes, as long as you know you are doing what is right for them.
I remember when I was growing up and at times I thought my mom was a witch from hell because she never tried to be a ‘cool mom’. Sometimes she would give us a good hiding even before hearing our side of the story. Even before I went out there and did something stupid, I knew exactly how she would react when she found out, so I always tried not to do anything my mama wouldn’t approve of.
Another mistake many parents make is not letting their children be children.
I have seen 10-year-old children with hairstyles that make them look five years older than their age.
I remember this one time I went to my daughter’s school meeting and the teachers were complaining about the hairstyles some of these children have.
If you treat your 10-year-old like she is 15, she is bound to act that age. When that happens, don’t turn around and blame government for not providing enough sex education.
When a 10-year-old has that adult hairstyle, high school boys are not going to see a child when they look at her. They will see a young woman and all sorts of things are going to follow.
Before we blame the government, let’s first look at ourselves as parents. Are we grooming our children to be sexual at a young age? What can we do to change the situation, because I cannot deal with 35-year-old grandparents anymore?
And lastly, I would like to know from you as a parent, do you pay any attention to the television programmes your child is exposed to? Please don’t blame the channels for showing inappropriate shows to children because none of those channels have access to your remote control.
Most parents do not pay any attention to the age restrictions for these programmes. They see it and somehow it doesn’t mean anything to them. This results in children whatever show they want.
Your child has a television set in his room because he tells you his friends also have them and you just cannot find it in your heart to disappoint your ‘angel’.
When you are sleeping in the middle of the night, do you know what your child is watching on that television in his bedroom? Do you know the sites he or she is visiting on that smart phone you bought for their birthday? Since toys are no longer cool these days, we prefer buying the latest phones for our children because we love them so much, right?
Know what your children are doing at all times.
@JoburgJourno
