Respect Young Mums

Respect to the YWCA for creating the Respect Young Mums Campaign.
an extract from their site ....

We are making young mums a priority because our work with them has shown us the   disadvantages and prejudices they face.

Our campaign will challenge your attitudes to young mums. Along with the general public, we'll ask politicians, journalists, doctors, teachers and midwives to face up to their words and assumptions about young mums.

By joining our campaign, you can add your voice to the call for more RESPECT for young mums and for better chances in life when it comes to issues like education, income, services and childcare.

This strikes me as being an excellent piece of work. I know from my work with young people that there is a great deal of prejudice towards young mums. I was recently told the story of a teenage mum visiting a town centre in Kent who was spat at and verbally abused for being a young mum.

Comments

[maggi]

is the issue "young", or "single" mums? I'd be interested to know

[ben]

Hi Maggie,
I don't really feel qualified to answer your question as I don't have much information for opinion forming beyond my own experience which is that of working with young people.
However my take on this is that mainstream society has developed a greater acceptance of single parents over the past couple of decades, which has led to an increased understanding of the pressures that lone parents face. This is reflected in a recognition that employers need to develop a more flexible approach to staff management.
Although there is much more that could be done and I’m sure that there are plenty of lone parents who feel ostracized there doesn’t appear to be much shift in opinion relating to young parents.

Politicians and other commentators continue to create negative stereotypes, describing young parents as scroungers wanting to increase their benefits by having children.

Almost all the research on this group of young people looks at the disadvantages of early parenthood.

These occurrences, along with many more not only do a disservice to the young people concerned but render the research itself as deficient.

[maggi]

so it's young AND poor? or is it young AND single? but not just young?
thanks for your further thoughts, it's something I'm turning over quite a lot at the moment with regard to the unspoken message about a "right" time to have a baby