Teen Mom...

Ok so I am a little behind and am just now starting to watch Season 1 of Teen Mom. This show makes my heart so heavy and I can't watch it without crying at least a little.
I feel so bad for these girls, their families, and their children. I think about being a teenager and it was HARD. I would NEVER want to do it again. I think about being a mom and it is HARD but it is amazing and miraculous and life changing and I'd do it over in a heartbeat. My daughter makes me happier than anything in the world. I have never said the words "This is just one more thing I will have to give up because I'm a mom or because of Ashlyn." Anything that I no longer do is worth it 100 times over because I have this little person in my life. Yet I hear this phrase over and over on the show.
I think of where I was when I was their age... I think of what my life would have been like if I were in their shoes... I think it would be similiar to or worse than all 4 of those girls. At that time I didn't have the relationship I do now with my parents. Not that my parents were different, but I wasn't at a point to realize all that they do for me every day. I look at the relationship I was in and holy cow would it have been worse... I look at all the dreams that would have been put on hold...

Now I look at where I was when I got pregnant... my mother lived right down the street and would come over at the drop of a hat... and now that I live across the country all I have to do is tell her I need her and she books a plane ticket (OK it has to be more serious than we are out of milk but still). My husband... what can I say about him except I couldn't do it without him... and the majority of my dreams had been realized or at least started by the time my daughter came.
I can't help but grieve for these girls and boys who are dealing with one of the most important yet hardest jobs any of us will ever have. I grieve for them because they are not getting the experience of parenthood I have. I grieve for them because they are learning so many lessons all at once that most people learn over many years... I grieve for them because they feel that everything they can no longer do is "just one more thing I HAVE to give up because I'm a teen parent." It just makes me so sad.