When you play, you must pay
By Minister Delita Johnson

Some teenage fathers have it made. They can mate with other teenage girls, get them pregnant, become so-called fathers, then take a leave of absence. Teenage fathers can graduate from high school with basketball or football scholarships, go off to college (out of town, mind you), and if they choose not to work, they don't have to. Some teenage fathers even get away with not having to pay one cent in child support.

Let's see. What else do teenage fathers not have to do? They don't have to pay day care fees. They don't have to buy baby clothes, nor do they have to make or pay for doctor visits. They don't have to get up throughout the night with the baby if the baby wakes up hungry, sick or wet. They don't have to buy diapers. They don't have to do anything. Teenage fathers absolutely have it made!

And you know what's funny? It's funny how they, the teenage father, can claim the baby is not his because we only "did it once." One time is all it takes, or am I missing something here? It's always after the blood test that the teenage father accepts that the baby is legitimately his.

It's also funny how the baby can look exactly like the father, or maybe even a close relative, yet, the baby is not his, so he just refuses to sign the birth certificate. In some cases, the teenage father neglects to sign the birth certificate because mama told him not to. Imagine that. Was mama there when the child was conceived? Again, I'm either confused or I'm missing something.

"Worthless sperm donor" is what comes to mind when I think about teenage fathers who don't feel obligated to take care of what belongs to them. Fathers who believe the government should take care of their child when they can do it themselves irritate me to no end. Yes, some cases are legitimate, but there are some that are not.

Teenage fathers don't stop to consider the stress they are putting on the baby's mother, her family and more important, the child. They are too wrapped up in "self." When you have a baby, it's no longer about you; it's about the baby and what it needs. Just being "a baby daddy" is not cool at all.

It's time for teenage mothers and fathers to become responsible for their actions. When you play, you have to pay.

It's not cool at all when I have to take my hard-earned dollars to help pay for a teenage father and mother's child when the so-called father is healthy and capable of obtaining a job to help support his own child. Nor is it cool for a teenage mother to have to rely solely on her income alone in supporting a child she didn't make by herself.

Loving and caring parents should not want their child lacking for anything. You can't just have a baby and say, "OK, I'm finished, mission accomplished." It doesn't work like that!

The same old song is being sung almost every single day. It's starting to sound like a broken record. You know the song where a teenage girl has gotten herself "knocked up" out of wedlock and she's left alone to take care of the child with little to no support from the so-called father.

Girls need to wake up and stop being so dim-witted! If the boy doesn't care now, he's not going to care later. That's the bottom line. A baby will not keep him with you!

Learn to consider yourself and your future. Get God and get an education, and I promise everything else will fall in place.

When you play grown-up games, you have to pay grown-up prices!