Nov 30 2005
I’m trolling the internet for pregnant teenagers again.
Come here, little girl, I have some CANDY.
OK, so it’s really nothing creepy like that, but the internet can make anything seem sort of creepy, right?
Here is my deal (you may wait until the end to bow at my feet)… I’m done having kids. I can sell all my baby stuff, but I really don’t need the money. What I would RATHER do is pay it forward. When I was 17, I got knocked up and some people gave me some stuff. Mom’s friend, Maureen, gave me a set of crib bedding. My older friend, Mark, had a girlfriend who gave me a blender. My best friend’s mother let me use her baby swing. You get the idea. I got hand-me-downs from many. I was so grateful and it was so appreciated.
It sucks to be a pregnant, unmarried teenager. People expect you to fail. You get dirty looks all the time. Your life is suddenly one big-ass financial struggle. You have to act like you know what you’re doing even when you don’t because if they see any chink in the armor, in goes the poison dart.
So here I am, 22 years later, and I don’t need my baby stuff anymore. And I have a LOT of it… bassinet, bedding, car seat carriers, bases, strollers, bath tubs, bouncy seats, kick-n-plays, walkers, doorway bouncers, etc. And it won’t be too long before I’ll be done with the last two things: the high chair and the crib.
Why is it so hard for me to find a knocked up teenager who wants and needs help? Seems like when you read the news, you hear all about how every high school is practically offering Lamaze classes these days. They have pickle vending machines in the gyms. The school nurse knows how to check a cervix for dilation.
Today, I posted an ad on the craigslist for my area. It reads “Creepy middle aged woman seeks to lure pregnant teen girl into trap.” OK, so it doesn’t read that way but I have to imagine that it might look that way to someone reading it. On the other hand, I got a reply to the ad via email from Ashley, pregnant and due in January, and I’m wondering if Ashley is a 58 year old obese man who lives with his mother. What are you going to do? It’s the internet. Love it or leave it.
I hope the craigslist ad pans out and I can help someone out and at the same time clear about an acre of space within my home. That would be good. And more than anything, I hope Ashley (or whomever takes my stuff) becomes a part of my life, that I can be a mentor or a friend or a shoulder for her.
I really want to pay it forward. I really want to do this.
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