One day while talking with a Mexican pal that taught Spanish to foreigners she explained to me how many of her foreign students waited to have kids. They had to get their education done, career started, own a home, etc. Suddenly they were in their thirties only to learn opportunity, for a variety of reasons, had passed these gals by on the baby-front.
Most of us know by our teens if we even ever want to be a parent, she explained, so why wait? One can always go to school, start a new career, buy a house, etc. but one can’t always have a baby so why not do it early in life when you know you can?
Well, that explained how several quinceaneras I’ve attended featured a gal that is mother by her Sweet Sixteen!
I’m not advocating this life path as an ideal for a teen to live their life by but I’m also not denying the logic to it either and how it impacts history and culture greatly.
When I first arrived to town in my later 40s and dated a gal my age that was a grandmother of a teen and mother to three gals in their thirties she named after her three childhood dolls. By a US perspective I was a young father having had kids in my twenties but she blew that theory apart.
It reminded me of many of the silent film actresses that were mothers of two by the time they were leading ladies at 15 with careers washed up due to age at 25. Having raised three kids single handily I couldn’t image any of them having been parents at fifteen or managing their career, much less one literally blown out of all proportions in theaters across the country.
The flip side to teens having sex is those foreigners seeing procreation and sex in situations where it simply doesn’t exist. Twice on FaceBook I’ve had gals stating, with distain, based on my photos of children, the subjects would be teenage mothers.
One was a photograph of a toddler joining one of my dance classes. The lass could barely stand, much less bounce, and nothing about the image implied sex or her future motherhood.
The other was a group of well-dressed elementary school aged gals in a local procession wearing floor length hand painted skirts depicting the history of the town. Two women responded saying that with donning such “seductive” attire it was little wonder they’d be future teen moms. I simply don’t see where being in a local parade in a costume is any more an indication of future parenthood than children that trick or treat.
All this reminds me I’m so glad my own kids got through their teens without becoming parents but as they edge closer to their thirties I sure wish they would now! I’d love to be a Poppy before I’m too old to enjoy it!
Joseph Toone is the Historical Society’s short-story award winning author of the SMA Secrets book series. All books in the series are Amazon bestsellers in Mexican Travel and Holidays. Toone is SMA’s expert and TripAdvisor’s top ranked historical tour guide telling the stories behind what we do in today’s SMA. Visit HistoryAndCultureWalkin
