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Outline
Thesis Statement: With enough motivation, a teen parent can accomplish anything.
I. Not all teen parents are on government assistance
A. Teen parents put off dreams to work and support their family
B. Getting a job is the only way most teen parents can be independent parents.
II. Teen parents do finish high school.
A. Some teen parents go to school during the day and work after they get out of school.
III. Teen parents may go back to college and pursue their dream career.
A. Most teen parents that are in college also have to work a full time job.
B. The teens that succeed are the ones with the most motivation.
Teenagers who are becoming parents are on the rise. There are several different stereotypes that teen parents face daily. Society automatically assumes that the teen will drop out of high school and live off the government. Society today sees a young parent and automatically starts making assumptions about them. Society is not always right with what they think the teen parents will end up doing with their life. With enough motivation, a teen parent can accomplish anything. Teen parents have to decide if they want to become another statistic or prove that not every teen parent has to be on government assistance in order to raise their child. Teen parents Haley Barker and Reece Lord from “We feared a baby would ruin our lives but now we are working teen parents and proud” by Kelly Strange, did not want their child raised on government assistance. Barker stated “People always assume the same-that we’re living off the government. Nothing could be further from the truth but people see a teenage parent and make assumptions.”(qtd in Strange) A lot of times a teen parent has to put off college to get a job to support their child. Barker said “We did have dreams about the careers we wanted and I hope we will be able to pursue those in the future.” (qtd in Strange) Getting a job is the only way most teen parents can be an independent parent and not have to live off the government. Some teen parents go to high school during the day and then go to work after school to support their child. To some it is important to finish high school so they can get better jobs to support their child. Working late at night and getting up early to go to school is very tiring. Then you have to get up during the night with your child if they are hungry, sick, or they just can’t sleep. There are times a teen parent will get up and go to school with just a couple hours of sleep. Being a teen parent is a very tiring and hard job, but if they keep reminding their self that their diploma is important to them then they will keep pushing and graduate high school. As some teen parents get older they may decide that they want to go to college and pursue their dream career. Although it is not easy it can be done. Most teen parents that decide to go to college work a full time job also. Having a child to take care of, homework to do, and a full time job to keep the bills paid can be overwhelming at times. Some may think that it is too much to take on and decide to stay at their present job that they may not enjoy but they do it for their family. The ones who succeed in getting their college degree are the ones who had the most motivation. Not all teen parents give up and drop out of high school. They also don’t sit on their butt and let the government support them. Like Barker and Lord did, teen parents can accomplish raising their child without the government. Barker said “I’m proud we did it ourselves without handouts and life is better than I had hoped. I don’t want people thinking it was easy because it wasn’t.”(qtd Strange) They had the motivation to raise their child without the government helping them and they succeeded. They are just one success story because they did not give up and they knew exactly what they wanted in life. Teen parents have to keep in mind it won’t be easy but it will be worth it in the end. Works Cite
Kelly, Strange. “We Feared A Baby Would Ruin Our Lives But Now We Are Working Teen Parents – And Proud!.” Sun, The (2013): 20, 29. Points of View Reference Center. Web October 17, 2013
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