News of Bristol Palin’s impending motherhood at 17 sparked across the media when her mother became a national celebrity as John McCain’s 2008 running mate. She took an exceptional amount of heat for her situation considering her mother’s rather vehement views on abstinence-only sex education and the importance of traditional family values (which presumably means not saying, “I will” before saying “I do”).
Bristol has been a busy girl lately between her work for the Candie’s Foundation, continuing her education, guest-starring on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and, of course, being a mother to her 18-month-old son, Tripp. She recently spoke with Pop Tarts (the entertainment piece of Fox News) about everything from her TV role to how hard breaking the news of her pregnancy to her parents was:
… But breaking the news to her parents was painful for the soon-to-be teen mom.
“It was extremely difficult; I’ll always compare it to labor. I thought it was harder than labor,” she said. “I was just thinking they’d be disappointed, then realizing I’d have to grow up so fast. It was all extremely difficult. Going from a teen to an adult so quickly has been the most challenging part of motherhood.”
I can completely relate to Bristol on this one. Telling my parents I was pregnant at 17 was significantly harder than labor, and it’s funny that I never thought of that analogy myself. I wrote my mom a letter and went and stayed with my best friend for awhile. Bristol, who told her parents face to face, clearly has more guts than I did at 17.
At the time Bristol discovered she was pregnant, she had been dating Johnston since she was a freshman. Prompted by an aching back and a missed period, she took a pregnancy test. It came out positive. “I was like, What am I going to do?” she says quietly. They decided to tell her parents when she was six weeks along.
“I remember sitting on the couch with one of my best friends and Levi, and I just couldn’t spit it out. I was like, ‘Mom, Mom.’ I was bawling my eyes out. She was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I was like, ‘I’m pregnant.’ And she was like” — Bristol stops and mimics a gasp — “Oh my God. Holy crap. But once that part was over with and Tripp was here, it was just like, this baby is a blessing.”
After her situation was made glaringly public thanks to the media spotlight on her mother — and consequently her entire family — Bristol didn’t “listen to the TV or read the blogs or anything like that.” She instead went to her friends and family for support and claimed to do the best she could.
Obviously, news of Bristol Palin’s teenage pregnancy was exacerbated because of her mother’s staunch beliefs on the subject of adolescent sexuality and abstinence-only sex education. This begs the question, then, is this fair … to either Bristol Palin or (gulp) her mother?
“Abstinence is practical and very realistic for some people, but others don’t choose that path. For me, sex education was in school, and there are always people telling you that there are consequences to sex and blah blah, but you don’t really realize it until you’re in a situation where you are pregnant,” said Palin, who recently became a Teen Abstinence Ambassador for the Candie’s Foundation fighting teen pregnancy.
You know, Bristol, I like you, I really do, but this statement is a whole lot of nothing. I mean, saying that abstinence is practical and realistic in one breath and then talking about finding yourself “in a situation where you are pregnant” in another? And the message you’re getting in school is that there are consequences to sex and “blah blah”? Perhaps a more comprehensive message — coupled with practical suggestions such as, oh I don’t know, birth control use — might have meant more than “blah blah.” Yeah, abstinence-only education is just a bunch of blahs … because it’s not practical and it’s not realistic, and you, sweetheart, are living proof of this.
Bristol Palin is working as a medical assistant and has her own townhouse in Alaska, the decor of which is decidedly adolescent, according to Harper’s Bazaar:
Bristol’s bathroom is strewn with makeup, earrings, and a hair iron; her closet is filled with more than 30 pairs of jeans; and she has pink kitchen utensils and a pink KitchenAid mixer that was a 19th-birthday present from her mother.
The townhouse’s decor is similarly youthful. There is a leopard-print carpet in the upstairs hallway, and the living-room rug features purple and black swirls. Both choices seem to bemuse her mother.
“You don’t like it,” Bristol teases.
“Noooooooo, I love your carpet,” Sarah protests.
She probably has a pink toolbox, too!
Joking aside, what are your thoughts on Bristol Palin? Is she an increasingly independent woman taking her future and that of her son into her own hands (although word is that she and baby daddy Levi Johnston are back together)? A spoiled girl given the chance to live in a flashy townhouse with animal print décor – that there’s no way she paid for on a medical assistant salary –particularly if she’s also going to school? I worked three jobs while going to college full-time to support myself and my daughter, and my on-campus “non-traditional student” apartment was a far cry from what the Harper’s Bazaar article describes Bristol’s living conditions as.
Is she somewhere in between, maybe? (This is what I happen to think.)
What a great place to raise a son, Alaska. I hope Levi sticks around and takes the boy fishing and hunting. Forty years ago we were smart enough to use condoms,whats wrong kids now a days.
Somewhere along the line of sex-havers’ past, the condom slipped and what resulted was quite a few who failed miserably as parents. Thus, the sex-havers of today!
I was going to give you a pass on this, Suz – but I can’t. It is just too nonsensical.
You have never heard of a “Planned Pregnancy”? Also, condoms don’t fail all that often.
The condom part was merely signifying getting pregnant, and it was written jokingly. :| And by no means was I saying every pregnancy is because someone’s condom slipped. That was hardly the point.
The condom slipped? Seriously? My boyfriend is utterly average in size, and we’ve never had a mysterious condom-slipping incident. Good thing I was on bc when we used condoms too, eh?
I don’t understand how abstinence is not practical or realistic…especially at that age. There really is no reason for having sex other than giving into the curiosity of what it might be like to give into the tingle between your legs. I find youth today pathetic in that sense. If you really have to, masturbate, or take a cold shower, or whatever. If you are not ready for the consequences do not have sex….period.
How tragic that you see things this way.
Humans are sexual beings, they begin to masturbate in the womb.
Do you know why?
Because it feels good.
The urge to procreate begins at the onset of puberty and only gets stronger over time. If you have never had these feelings, you can’t understand them – and I pity you.
I find your assertion of “If you really have to, masturbate, or take a cold shower, or whatever.” highly amusing.
Yeah, because cold showers induce such powerful orgasms…
Just because something feels good does not mean you need to do it. It is great when you do it with someone you have known for a while and care for and are ready for the consequences. All these ways that we have to “prevent” pregnancies and diseases are not 100%. I am just disgusted by the whole issue of babies having babies and doing adult things. Innocence is dead.
Babies having babies by doing adult things? Hell, judging by your take on innocence, innocence has always been dead. Hence people getting married off at 12 in the 1400s and making babies at 13, scraping through life and watching their children die to the flu or plague and dying poor and lonely. I think innocence is a new idea that popped out of the 50s.
Mutual masturbation in a warm shower is much more fun. Well,for most people!
The general public in the 1400s was lucky if they made it to be 30 years of age. Those were different times where different actions were needed for the survival of mankind. These days people live to be way over 50, thus more time allowed to mature and definitely more time to have sex. I just don’t get the rush.
That’s very nice for you.
You are, however – in the minority.
Please don’t expect the rest of humankind to live by your standards. Just because you think it’s right doesn’t mean that it works for everyone.
If it makes you feel better to think that you are morally superior to everyone else – knock yourself out.
Just keep out of my bedroom/living room/dining room/kitchen/den/bathroom/deck/back yard.
Thank you very much.
Eurogirl, do you think the solution for all the obese people in the world is to tell them to stop eating?? “I know it tastes good and your body is telling you to eat that Big Mac….but just don’t eat anything.”
….OR we could teach people how to eat PROPERLY, just like we can teach people to have sex SAFELY. You can’t tell people what they can and can’t do, especially teens, you can just tell them what you think and educate them to they can make the best decision for them.
Just because we live longer doesn’t mean that urges to have sex or the hormones that cause them come any later. Teenagers are going to have sex. They have been having sex for a very long time now, and I do not think that it will ever change unless the onset of puberty is delayed to a later time in life, which will most likely never happen.
While I think Bristol is spoiled somewhat, she also realizes how lucky she was for having a family that could afford to help support her during her pregnancy and after. Although she really needs to stop trumpeting abstinence since, you know, she’s a glaring example of the problems with it.
Levi said she loves the nard!
I am NOT (repeat NOT NOT NOT) a fan of any of the Palins. But you have to give Bristol some credit for working and going to school precisely because her family can support her in the manner described in the magazine. She has absolutely no reason to do anything productive if she chooses not to. So I have to give some respect to the girl.
It’s true, I have to give her that. It’s not like she has to make anything of herself, yet she seems to want to.
Pingback: Should Sarah Palin Forgive Levi Johnston? – Zelda Lily, Feminism in a Bra