Published: 31 August, 2012

• ON the subject of Oh boy! What a triumph for A-level mum (August 17), I found your praise and happy reportage a bit unnerving and irresponsible.
Yes, in this case, it is a happy ending for mother and baby. But, what of the thousands of girls who’ve been let down by their lovers?

The reality is that girls should be encouraged to finish school first before having babies, because having a baby means responsibility, and most young people are not yet ready for that level of responsibility.

What if the teenager’s boyfriend had absconded, as so many have done?

What if her pregnancy had been problematic? What if her parents and school hadn’t been supportive?

Depending on social security is not that easy; ask any of those who have trodden that path.

The worst is finding out that you are counted as a “baby mother” or “mother baby” by your lover boasting about how many babies he has.

Your responsibility as a family newspaper is to point out the likely pitfalls for young parents without professions (and therefore without qualifications), which means no job prospects to start a new household.

All this means no hope of a mortgage, unless one’s parents are financially able to secure the young couple a reasonable mortgage.

Without any security, love has a tendency to fly out of the window, with dreadful consequences for the mother and baby. It is for this reason that almost all parents want to know what job the prospective father of the baby is doing.

In this day and age, girls should be encouraged to have their professions first, so that when the worst happens – your lover fails the responsibility test – the young lady should be able to work and feed her baby without first having a nervous breakdown.

Even if one’s lover sticks around, salaries these days are minimal, and few men can keep their families without the wife or partner’s income.

LINDIWE M TSELE
NW5