Babies Having Babies?


Written by Noel.

Yesterday, our family of three and a half (a.k.a. Baby Girl) went to a restaurant in Downtown Austin called Thai Kitchen for dinner. I had already eaten with my mother not 45 minutes before, so I chased Baby Girl around the claustrophobic restaurant until the food was ready.

Baby Girl waddled around the corner and began acting really cute to a man waiting for a table by the door. He smiled at her and then turned his head to look at me.

“Is she your kid?” he asked.

What an absurd thing to ask, I thought. Do I look like the kind of kid who would have a baby at 10 years old? But I just dismissed his question with an uncomfortable smile and a “she’s my sister“.

I pushed that question far from my thoughts for the rest of the night, but it came back to me today. If he was just a man in town for a business trip, is teen pregnancy really that normal where ever he’s from? And if he wasn’t just a business man then did he really think that asking a 12 year old -who, by the way, is short enough to look nine- if the little girl she was chasing around a restaurant was theirs is such a casual question?

But of course, maybe he was just one of those people who think something in their head and it just comes out of their mouth all wrong. Maybe I misinterpreted it all wrong.

It’s certainly something to think about, isn’t it?


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Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Carol
Posted on:
January 3, 2009 at 8:23 pm

That is pretty funny. I must say I would be pretty freaked out if I was a Grandma already. Thanks for writing the post. I appreciate you taking the time and I love to read your writing.

Carol

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Jenna
Posted on:
January 4, 2009 at 12:39 am

Awesome and freaky. Really… What was that man thinking?

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
corinna
Posted on:
January 4, 2009 at 3:43 pm

that man is nuts. probably not around kids very much. excellent writing skills, austen. thanks for coming to have an appelflap with us!

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Chris
Posted on:
January 4, 2009 at 10:57 pm

He had to be kidding.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah
Posted on:
January 7, 2009 at 10:17 am

It is sad but true, there are tons of kids out there procreating at absurdly young ages.

I know a girl who is 21 and pregnant with her 4th child.

Her mother is 36. She is my age and is a grandmother of four.

Great post, by the way. I think this is amazing writing for a 12 year old.

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
rockzee
Posted on:
January 8, 2009 at 10:00 am

Kids make strangers say anything they please, forgetting all manners. I’ve heard of worse, for sure. But I can see how you would be taken aback by such a comment. If you weren’t such a nice girl, you might have told him to mind his own business.

p.s. I never would have known this was written by a 12-year-old. You write very well.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
rockzee
Posted on:
January 8, 2009 at 10:01 am

p.s.s. Regarding Chris’s comment: If he was kidding, well, that’s just tacky.