"If she doesn't allow me embark on this journey, I will still go and she will never hear from me again"
Those were the words of my neighbor's Years old only daughter, Nina. Now you might be wondering what transpired between them, I will tell you a short story about what made an 18 year old beautiful female utter that to her mother.
Nina had finished her National Diploma at the federal poly bauchi where she read an Administrative course.
She wants a University degree but her mother opposed the idea due to financial constraints so she pleaded with her to defer it until next year but Nina refused claiming that her boyfriend had promised to sponsor her education only if she agrees to relocate to Lagos with him so that they can both apply in the same university.
Note: The said boyfriend is only 22 years old and he is into fraudulent activities.
I do not believe that Nina's mother didn't raise her properly, I believe Nina made her choice above her mother's words. Gen Z and Gen Alpha Teenagers are mostly affected by peer pressure, the distractions from technology which sometimes can be positive or negative and many other reasons which honestly might not be their faults.
A child from 0-2years under the parent's care is safe because he/she understands and learns from what he/she sees the parents do, by the time the child sets out he/she is at the mercy of the people they meet outside. The duty of parenting is continuously unending, you start a correctional lecture each time they speak and act wrongly.
In case Nina managed to elope with her so called boyfriend and in the course of their stay together she gets pregnant for him, which she might likely not tell her mother but if she decides to tell her..
Let's say I was to be her mother, there is no better way for her to learn or run back to my lessons other than to let her keep the pregnancy to full term and give birth to the child, school can wait for her. If a child refuses to listen despite the teachings and warnings of the parents, I support the motion to let the child do as he/she pleases, he/she would learn the hard way.
Supposedly I have pity on her and let her abort the child in order to go back to school. I will only be teaching her that abortion is good without saying it.
I can't place school over the life of my daughter and the unborn child. It is hard to comfort a child's wrongdoings but in some cases you just have to in order for them to be comfortable and to gain their trust. That's the most I can do from my end.
This scenario is very common where I live, and the teenagers carry the pregnancy to term probably not because their parents insisted but because they could not afford an abortion fee and the father of the child most have denied it or refuse to be responsible for it.