Fragile Families

I attended a 6-hour "Healthy Marriage, Fragile Families, and Responsible Fatherhood" summit yesterday. We heard a lot about teen pregnancy, marriage and divorce rates (the one that continues to baffle me is that 50% of marriages today will end in divorce - horrid). They spoke on pre-marital education (a fabulous idea - I wish it was mandatory nationwide) and family violence (have to be careful not to push for marriage so hard that girls feel pressured to stay in abusive relationships). There were a couple of really boring presentations on gov't benefits (not that some people don't deserve benefits, but the speakers were dullsville).

Texas Atty General Greg Abbott spoke as well (would you believe that he was permanently paralyzed while jogging? A tree fell on him!). Interesting statistic: Texas collected 1.7 billion (with a B!) dollars in child support last year. Of course, the real tragedy is that these kids are growing up without their dads in their lives - a cavernous hole that no amount of money can fill - but at least some of these fathers are trying to help out financially.

The best speaker was a pastor from Chattanooga, Dr. Rozario Slack. He was fabulous - a complete inspiration. He is one of the head honchos in a program called First Things First, an organization dedicated to strengthening families: focusing on fathering, marriage, and sexual abstinence before marriage.

Okay, but I had intentions of writing about these panelists, 3 very young couples with kids. One girl had her first child at 14. Holy cow. Just to save you from doing the math, that is 9th grade. Man, the only thing I learned about sex in the 9th grade was what an orgasm was supposed to sound like from Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally! One of the girls waited until she was 18 - BUT she had twins with deformities in their hands and feet (some digits fused together). All 6 mommies & daddies are still together (all are participating in a community marriage education/counseling program), and said they want to get married. They were so immature though. When asked why they were waiting to get married one guy said b/c he wanted to have a big reception for his friends. Too bad they weren't as concerned about financial responsibility before having a child. Also, when asked the best part of having a baby, two of the guys had similar answers: "I made him, he's gonna be just like me". Yikes. Well I just hope things work out for those kids, (the big ones and the babies). Hopefully they have a strong support system and a lot of patience and love in their hearts...