Unplanned pregnancy doesn't just happen to teenagers.
My daughter told me on her 26th birthday that she was pregnant. This was my child who was on the pill...and practiced safe sex.
While she wasn't sure if she wanted to marry the father....she never considered abortion. She married her husband a month before my grandson was born after she was sure they were marrying each other because they loved each other....not because they were having a baby. The two of them went alone to the courthouse, got married and told everyone afterwards.
On their first anniversary....they had a formal wedding with family and friends.
She has never looked back on her decisions....though if she had her druthers...she would have been married before she got married.
It certainly wasn't my choice ....or her father's....what she should do. I told her from the time she was a freshman in high school....that if she got pregnant without being married....she would be the one who had to make choices for herself and her child...no one else.
Pregnancy happens in good families....in bad. In poor families and well-off. In intact family units and divorced families.
Once our children reach a certain age.....we cannot spend every minute with them 24/7 or wrap them in cotton batting. Believe me when I say...that if I could I would have.
All we as parents can do....is our best work for our children...and when they make mistakes...stand by with support and love. They didn't come with a book of instructions when born.
I hope the media will exercise restraint in their vicious quest for tidbits of what amounts to gossip in this case.
Sarah Palin seems to be a mother who tries to juggle life, career and children ....just like most of the women in this country. Sometimes there's a touchdown, sometimes there's a field goal, and sometimes you just have to punt and hope for the best.
She's just like me, and Sue down the street, and Jane at work, and Jennie, the clerk at Kroger's. She's real, she's human.....she's a woman, a mom, an American.
She has my vote.