riverside_copy_of mother interview (genna) _ apr 23, 2024 0_kayla_budziak's stu

The speaker's family was not very supportive during her pregnancy, except for her dad and stepmom who helped with babysitting. The speaker became more motivated to improve her life after finding out she was going to be a mom. She received judgment from both her family and others for being a young mother. The speaker mentions the TV show Teen Mom and suggests that it may glorify teen pregnancy, although she has never watched it. She believes that other shows also portray the drama and pain of being a young mother. How inclined was your family to help you with your pregnancy? So initially, my mom was less supportive, I would say. My dad and stepmom did help some as far as babysitting. But my dad worked. My stepmom was going through cancer at the time. My sisters kind of had their own lives, weren't able to help. So I mean, initially it was just me and me kind of also helping other people. How do you think your pregnancy affected the trajectory of your life? I was more motivated once I found out that I was going to be a mom because I didn't care as much about school or about where my life was going until I found out that I was going to have someone that was going to depend on me. So that kind of pushed me to actually look into going to college and I don't know that I would have gone to college if I hadn't had kids. Have you received judgment from your family and others for being a young mother? Maybe my family initially, others always. People would comment on it in high school, people would comment on it in college, people would comment on it and people I didn't even really know that well. Sometimes people would tell me, oh my gosh, you're not going to make it anywhere. There's no way you're going to make it to college and things like that. So everyone had an opinion, it seems like, especially while I was pregnant. And do you think in any way that teen pregnancy has been glorified through TV and media? So I guess there's a show called Teen Mom, I've never watched it, but I guess it was just like maybe I caught bits of it and it was like, oh, this is too much like life that I can't watch it. I don't know exactly, but I mean, from what I understand though, these young moms eventually get like nice things because they've been on the show. In other shows, I could see how it could be glorification as well because it's this drama that somebody is going through and it's not fun to go through that drama and it's not fun to go through the pain that some of these women probably are going through.