Dear Friends,
image from www.telegraph.co.uk/news
We have discussed a bit about teenage pregnancy in posting CH’s Request1 : Teenage Pregnancy, what’s the real deal ? after the story of Palin’s daughter.
Now we have this front page about a Dad at 13 !
If this is true, then when they did it, Alfie was only 12 (or 13 in Chinese calculation).
Alfie was therefore about 3 years earlier than 2×8 rule (refer to posting Your growth/reproductive pattern ).
I looked at the photo of the young couple. I might be wrong, but I think they probably got the wrong Dad. Alfie does not seem to hit the 2×8 zone yet.
But who knows, hormones contaminated foods are all-over the world.
Of course having baby is not just a matter about the 2×7 or 2×8 rule. The serious question is are these teenagers ready, physically, mentally and financially to raise kids ?
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Alfie, when asked by a journalist how he is going to cope financially, he answered : ” What is financially ? ” Clearly he is not ready. A baby may be much fun for the first few days, after that is all down hill for quite some time.
The society needs to pause and think what’s going on with our young kids, shouldn’t they be more focused in preparing themselves for the competitive world rather than getting caught in having unprepared babies ?
Are these “accidents” mistakes of the kids ?
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According to news reports, Alfie went for a sleepover at Chantelle’s house (room) with his parents’ permission, and viola! we have a new addition 10 months later!
So gotta be careful with our kids. They are never too young to be parents. On second thoughts, it might not be a bad idea to keep the kids on PlayStation or Nintendo longer. Or else their attention may stray elsewhere!
About Taro and Akiko, well, Japan has been trying desperately for the last few years to increase the national birthrate, and guess what? it was big news when the young female minister, Ms Obuchi (daughter of the former PM Obuchi) who was supposed to be special minister to increase national birthrate provided a practical example by getting pregnant herself!! (second baby apparently).
The world is going crazy. The above couple certainly didn’t have an inkling about responsibilities and consequences; and on another case the single mum who just love having babies, had octuplets and didn’t think about how to afford to raise all her 14 kids – herself being unemployed.
I pity their parents who have to shoulder on their behalf.
Life seems oversimplified in their eyes – it’s truly here and now… and all about “ME’ world.
> ch,
sleepover ?
I think Alfie is not the biological father to the baby.
there are a lot of babies in China waiting to be adopted, Japanese should give it a thought.
told my son to read about Alfie, guess that’s the best way to warn him about responsibility of parenting, not baby as a toy, but about changing diapers, feeding them, about “financially”, about loss of sleep etc.
want to trade PlayStation for a baby ?
> mf,
i am puzzled that Aflie’s mum seems quite at ease with his 13-yr old son becoming a father, and maybe even enjoying his son is being persued like a celebrity by the media !
we are witnessing the disintegration of some basic social values.
Chinese classic 《大學》, in its first chapter, has this to offer (remember this classic was read by teenagers in the olden days) :
“大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。知止而后有定，定而后能静，静而后能安，安而后能虑，虑而后能得。物有本末，事有终始。知所先后，则近道矣…….
…….. 自天子以至于庶人，壹是皆以修身为本。其本乱，而末治者否矣。其所厚者薄，而其所薄者厚，未之有也。…”
xy2,
About Japanese adopting babies from China? Not for the Japanese. Maybe the other way round is possible. Remember the Chinese families who literally “adopted” the left behind orphans in China? When the Chinese families had nothing to eat but they still took the kids in? A non-Chinese and non-Japanese person who lived during those times witnessed it all, and he said, I really think the Chinese have a big heart, despite the horrid things that were done to them by their Japanese conquerors, they took in the kids of their enemies as one of their own and brought them up!
Back to adopting Chinese kids. The Japanese people cannot accept that. They already have problems accepting Chinese immigrants and foreign workers from Indonesia and Philippines to care for their aged population and do all the “3K” jobs. Many “half” Japanese kids with foreign mothers born out of wedlock but officially recognized by their Japanese fathers (nin chi, 認知） were not given Japanese citizenships and forced to leave the country because their parents were not married!
Plus, I think in Asia, adoption has an added social/cultural issue that is difficult to shake off, perhaps due to the teachings of Confucius. Parents expect filial piety from their children; parents raise their kids with the intention of using them as their “pension fund”, so to speak. The Chinese and Japanese also raise a kid (mostly a son) to continue to family name and to worship their ancestors, so it is a more complicated issue.
This contrasts with the Western/American concept of a well-to-do or warm family giving an orphan/underprivileged kid a home and fulfilling a social responsibility of helping raise a child to become a responsible adult/citizen (whether it is biologically yours or not).
As for mf’s mention on the mother with octuplets, yes, I watched the interview and I see her as an opportunist! She knows very well what she is getting into, and the world will pay for it kinda attitude. She makes a big show about going back to school blah blah, but she is probably looking more to the big media attention and who knows some big money that will come with it.
ch,
Japanese are still living in denial, their royal family is half Koreans.
And many “Choi” named Koreans can trace their roots to North-Eastern China, with similar surname Cui in Chinese. So there we are some links between Koreans and Chinese.
Emperor Qing Shihuangdi sent an army of young boys and girls in search of the “Elixir of Immortality” from the Land-in-the-East (Japan). The fleet dared not return to China because they couldn’t find the legendary elixir/herb. They were likely to be ancestors of Japanese too. This happened about 2,200 years ago and was recorded in Chinese history.
That much about “pure” Japanese, there is no such race. Same for Chinese or Korean or others.
xy2, try raising that issue about half-Koreans in Japan and you will get stoned! The Japanese are even denying that Kanji ever came from China!!!
About Alfie, yeah you are right, after taking a better look at Alfie, his face is one of a boy who has not even reached puberty! He looks more like an 8 year old to me though. Now there are at least there are 2 other contenders for the father of Maisie and it seems like the families of Alfie and Chantelle put together have 15 kids between them, and the father of Alfie has now hired an image consultant to take care of all the media attention. You get the picture. There is a lot of $$$$ or in Alfie’s case, pounds to be had from this deal. One writer estimated that Alfie and Chantelle (or their parents more like) can expect to earn more than 500,000 pounds from media coverage for baby Maisie from birth to first birthday to first day at school etc…… Well, not a bad sum of money for such hard economic times.
But sad, using babies and kids to make money. One form of child prostitution/abuse?
ch,
that seems to be the real story.
alfie is just a pawn.
Maybe the real father cannot be revealed. No matter how bad the story may get to, with more boys owning up, making it into a circus kind of thing, the real father will not step out.
Who knows….he may be a member of the family or rapist or some influential person, who is now, just watching his baby helplessly, as they make a big joke out of him?
YL, I think the real father is right there among one of those people who knows and I may even bet related to Alfie or Chantelle.
Remember that in criminal investigations, the police always start from the people at home or people who know the victim well. The criminal is usually never too far away. Same principle here.
Wah CH, you just read my mind! I was thinking same thing too!
Self control is a virtue, getting extinct. Satisfying fleshly desires is the in thing now, like the slogan of Nike- ‘Just do it’.
It brings back memories of old, of how gentlemenly those young men were. They score top marks for controlling themselves & keeping their girlfriends chaste! I really admire them! Such breed of men, unheard off, now!
Thumbs up, you guys of the older generations! Am I right? Or only those young men I knew were like that? hehehe….!
Remember all that huha about Sarah Palin and her teenage pregnant daughter that prompted a posting by xiaoyao2 on teenage pregnancy?
Just read that Bristol has given birth and as expected, the young couple has split and they are not getting married after all……..
Hmmm……this world is just a stage play….don’t know when its real & when its just a dream. Some dreams are so real & we got mixed up, whether now, is a dream & we are actually sleeping.
I think that Alfie is the biological father of the child. Sadly, I know of two girls that are still in middle school who are pregnant by boys who also look really young, all 14 years old. It’s possible.
It’s not like they did it solely for media attention. I’m sure Alfie and Chantelle didn’t realize what they were getting into.