Living life: Babies make a Baby

Alfie Patten, a 13 year old English lad has gained the unenviable distinction of being one of the youngest dads in the world. Don’t ask me how a twelve year boy and a fourteen year old girl found out how to make children. All I can say is the Alfie chap has been a little bit too adventurous lately. See how much trouble he has got himself into. The trouble is not all about the baby with teenage parents, but with the society into which such a gross thing happens. Teenage pregnancies are on the increase not only in the UK but also here in Rwanda. I can hear people recalling their own hanky panky childhood stories of back in the days. Look, children will a play all kinds of games. You can be guaranteed that the Mummy and Daddy role play always features in there somewhere. But the hanky panky around the hide and seek games can be quite innocent, so we should not be following kids around making sure that they do not do what you do not want them to do – not just yet. How come today’s babies are making babies at thirteen? Obviously, there is too much bad TV in the picture (or is it too much ‘bad’ picture in the TV?). Kids are watching people kissing passionately, groping freely in movies and soon they want to practice some of what they see. Curiosity killed the rat, so they say. Now, it is making children. Wait until you hear why British folks are furious. The tabloids are apparently paying thousands of pounds to have the story and pictures of the teenage couple. One tabloid reports Alfie’s mum the new mother not to call him all the time, because “Alfie’s so upset and needs to get his head around for a while.” According to one report, fifteen television stations are locked into a fierce battle to win rights to make a documentary for about £ 80,000 pounds (Rwf 65,840,000). One tabloid has already paid in the excess of £ 30,000 pounds (Rwf 24,720,000) to have his picture published. Now, a story that was about morals of young teenage children is being span by the scandal-hungry media into a simple how to get rich quick scheme. For all the trouble, two other little boys now claim to have slept with the young mother around the time when she should have conceived. To add salt o the injury, the boys claim that they were not the only ones playing hanky panky. As much as moralists scream themselves hoarse about the immorality in today’s families, the truth of the matter is that this media circus can only serve to make it worse. Boys now know the easiest way to become rich is to get some girl “knocked up”. Perhaps the only good thing coming out of Alfie’s woes is the fact that a twelve year old boy had the courage to see a girl two years older. OK, I can see people yelling at me – you fool, how could you say? But truth is courage is a rare commodity among men these days! Days gone by, men used to be men. It turns out there are still some of the real men left, even if they are hidden in the bodies of thirteen year old boys. Maybe, this will bring us to revise our methods on morality. Contact: kelviod@yahoo.com