- Joined
- Sep 7, 2006
- Messages
- 45,079
- Reaction score
- 322
I am 63. My mother had me very late in life. So she remembered the turn of the last century.
When I was getting ready to turn into a teenager people were talking about how bad the world had become. When they were children, they declared, unwanted teenage pregnancies were almost unheard of.
My mother laughed and pointed out that of course there were almost no "unwanted, out of wedlock" teenaged pregnancies when she was a child because a girl doesn't start getting interested in boys until she gets to be about 14 years old -- and by that time most of the girls were married off -- usually to older men who could support them. My mother was called an old maid at 16 and by the time she was 18 they called her "the spinster".
There were probably more teenaged girls pregnant per capita then than now, but the girls were married ladies so everything was quite proper, thank you.
It is amazing how the views and values can change in such a short time! The turn of the last century really wasnt that long ago.