Younger Parents 25 June, 2008
Here’s a version of an article I wrote in 2005 for Education Choices magazine.
Nationally, the number of babies born to women aged to 24 years continues to decline1. Despite the recent media coverage of ‘irresponsible’ spending of the baby bonus money by teen parents, the reality is that there are no constraints on how the money is spent, and it is just public perception, not reality, that all teenage parents are irresponsible with money. This sensationalism is merely a result of changing trends and media bias toward a minority group2. Only 16 per 1000 babies are born to teenage women - that is about 11000 babies per year in Australia, a figure which is still decreasing annually - these young parents are certainly a minority1. And don’t they know it.
