That kid looks too young to father a child, or even really have much in the way of intercourse. But I wonder if he isn’t old enough to be covering up for someone who is…

That said, I’m NOT blaming the little girl. She clearly has issues. But I do think it is okay to blame the parents in this case. We can blame the media/oversexualization of children, etc, but it’s the parents who are ultimately responsible for their children. My daughter isn’t perfect. I’m not a perfect mother and my mother wasn’t perfect and my grandmother wasn’t perfect. But my daughter’s needs come before my own and that is something you CAN trace back in my family. I know how fortunate I’ve been.

BTW, I am also very lucky to have wonderful neighbors who have become like family to me. I don’t know what I would do without them and vice-versa. We look out for each other’s children.

Not everyone has the support your family has been blessed with. My mother died when I was 9 and I was sent to live hundreds of miles from my with my father, who molested me. When I finally go out of his house, still not ready to face how I’d been raised, I was lucky enough to end up with a wonderful man, and I ended up pregnant (I was 20. A bit earlier than we planned, but that was the eventual plan.) Most of my family is not close enough to help, and almost as many side with my father in our estrangement despite that he has threatened to shoot my husband and kidnap our kids (and mind you when my parents were divorcing he tried to kidnap me, so I’m taking that threat seriously.)

The only support I have is my husband, my sister, who doesn’t show up half the time I ask her to come over for a birthday or holiday party, much less to babysit, and my mother in law who last time she baby sat (valentine’s day) gave my 4 year old daughter a mullet, blamed me for her doing it, then left the house crying because we were being mean to her. (My daughter’s hair hadn’t been more than trimmed her whole life. It was glorious and long and beautiful and the woman made her sit down, even though my daughter knew it was wrong and chopped it all an uneven few inches except for the bottom of the back which she left. My daughter was devastated and so mixed up because she trusted Mamaw and only wanted to make Mamaw happy.)

Some of us just don’t have a choice. I constantly hear people tell me I should get a job instead of staying with the kids so our family can be better off financially, but with no family support I don’t have the option of shifting the kids off to a grandma or an aunt. A lot of us parents out here don’t have that choice.

I’m with AztecLady…I started talking about sex ed to my kids at a very early age. I bring it up whenever I see something in the paper. I discussed this issue with my son, (he’s also 13). I was motivated by an Oprah segment wherein middle school girls talked about going to “rainbow” parties. At a rainbow party, each girl wore a different color lipstick and then performed fellatio on a line of boys. At the end of it all, the boy’s penises would have a rainbow of different colored lipstick…UGH! The girls didn’t think anything of it. They didn’t even think it was a sexual act.

I’m lucky enough to get off work early so that I can pick my kids up after school every day. But a lot of working parents aren’t as fortunate. They might not have family nearby to help, they may have difficulty finding child care or can’t afford it. What are they to do? It’s an awful situation.

A very sad situation for all involved.

There’s a double-edged sword to society becoming more permissive. On one hand, people can live their lives as they see fit. (Something I have very little problem with, btw.) On the other hand, we have people who make very bad choices and end up getting a ton of publicity and sympathy for it: ie, the octuplet mom in California and then this kid in England. I think that taxpayers should be up in arms! I mean, some of us who work and pay taxes are struggling to take care of our own children. I have friends who have decided not to have children until they are financially stable. And yet you have these other people who abuse the system and no one says, “enough is enough” because of personal liberties.

I guess it’s a Catch-22. I believe in personal liberties and I don’t believe in any government interference in procreation. But damn, it still frustrates me when such bad decisions are held up as special from all the media attention.

As for supervision, clearly from the story, these parents have a few screws missing. But there are many parents with no nearby family resources to help. And it’s a hard thing to have to decide between food and shelter or supervision for your pre-teen.

I am surprised that the girl is older – at that age, girls are just so much sexually mature than boys – doesn’t seem like she’s emotionally mature though.

I wish them the best. God knows they’re going to need it.