I spoke to a friend of mine from Eastbourne today to find whether the town new parents Alfie Patten, 13, and Chantelle Steadman, 15, are currently growing up in (and certainly quicker in the last week) could have been the cause for their new baby Maisie’s conception and birth.
Eastbourne's future - both of them
“It doesn’t surprise me,” the friend said. “It’s full of pikeys.”
“When I was younger growing up in Eastbourne we always went to the beach. But I guess there’s only so many times you can go to the beach. There was a time around 15 and 16 when there really wasn’t very much to do.”
Maybe he has a point. What better way is there to pass the time with nowhere to go and nothing to do? Maybe more needs to be done to give these children something to do?
However, I think it is wrong to lay the blame squarely on the Government, as it seems most people are doing.
Tonight’s London Lite devotes an entire page to this topic:
Laura Reed, from Deptford, says it happened because: “…the state encourages them with benefits”.
Vicky K from Kensal Green thinks children should only be taught sex education no earlier than just before adolescence because children “beneath this age simply don’t understand what it’s all about.”
(Those kids still manage to work out how to do it though don’t they?!)
I simply do not believe that the fact these children managed to have a child was as a result of today’s society.
Teenage pregnancies have been happening for decades, if not centuries.
I spoke to someone who grew up in South East London during the 1960s, spending his youth on the kind of council estates Alfie and Chantelle come from and he said it was much the same then:
“It’s not like this is a new thing. The council estate girls were always easy.
“There was no sense of self worth when you grew up on an estate. When parents lived on a limited budget in an environment where money was tight with no self worth in their jobs it was always going to rub off on the kids, especially the girls.
“It didn’t happen to girls from nice neighbourhood”
Give Max Clifford a ring because there's even some things the Devil won't do
The most evident example of this self-worthlessness must be Alfie’s father, with nine children of his own with three different women. As he parades around in a devil mask clearly he sees no irony in this and the sign he holds of “no comment ring Max [Clifford]” is just hysterical.
Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith, chairman of the Centre for Social Justice, has been saying for years there has been breakdown in the family and that parents need to take some responsibility for their children and themselves. Hopefully someone might finally listen to him.
Unfortunately, I can’t help but feel some people watching all the attention and money given to Alfie’s family will give others ideas.
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