As Teen Mothers Increase, Daycares Become a Necessity
By: Ashley Pugliese
Diploma or job? This question wandered in 15-year-old Julia Alvarez's head when she had her daughter, Catherine Marie Alvarez. Julia was your regular sophomore. She was captain of her drill team, got A's in most of her classes, always had a full table at lunch, and she was lucky enough to have a senior boyfriend. "It was only one time," said Alvarez. "I did not think I would turn out pregnant my first time."
It was the couple's fifth anniversary, and he had planned a romantic dinner. "He said he loved me and would never leave me," she said. After that night, everything changed in Alvarez's life. The day her child was born three years ago was a very happy day, but also a day that Alvarez knew that it was never going to be easy. She knew that now she had someone else to put before herself.
Alvarez had no support system. Her mom stopped talking to her and kicked her out because Julia chose to keep the baby. Her boyfriend left her after he graduated and he ended up moving to Florida to go to college and her New York City high school does not provide day care.
"It was the toughest decision I had to make," said Alvarez after telling me that she chose to drop out of school and get a job to support Catherine and herself. Instead of waking up to go to school Alvarez now woke up 5AM, feeds Catherine, takes the bus to her cousin Jessica's house, who is 22 and helped Alvarez out four days a week when Alvarez had to work in the mornings. Then, she takes the bus to her job at McDonalds. After a long day at work, Alvarez punches out at 4PM takes the bus to her cousins to pick up Catherine. She gets home to feed Catherine. Then she plays and spends some time with her daughter, takes her a shower and puts her to sleep. It is around 10PM and Alvarez wants to just get to bed. But before she does, she makes sure she prays and asks God to give her strength for the next day.
"Catherine is in my life but I would have loved to have graduated and gone to college," Alvarez said since she knew that this past June she would have been part of class of 2011. Going to a school where people knew what kind of girl Alvarez and, a school that made her love to get up every morning. But this changed when Alvarez started to show that she was pregnant. "Girls would just look at me like I was a slut. Teachers would feel awkward when talking to me, and the worst part is that my boyfriend pretended that the baby was not his," Alvarez said as she started to tear up.
Alvarez was able to finish her sophomore year but was put on bed rest when her junior year was starting. "Daycare was too expensive and my school shot down my idea of putting a daycare center for teen mothers," said Alvarez, who was not the first and probably would not be the last teen mother in her school. "A daycare in my school would have helped me out a lot, I would have a diploma," said Alvarez, "Now when I apply for a job it will be a hundred times harder for me to get it."
She added, "I would not change anything. I love my daughter, and I have a great job in Manhattan working at a hotel now, but I would like to one day help teenage mothers like myself and maybe convince high schools to help them out as well, by providing child care during school hours."
Amy Rivera's life is a lot different than Alvarez's, when she was 16 she gave birth to her baby boy, Jordan Cruz-Rivera. "Being a mom is the hardest job in the world, especially doing it at 16 and a very busy schedule," said Rivera. "I always planned to get a career first then marriage and after I would have kids. But I guess life never works out the way you planned it."
Rivera was going out with her boyfriend, John Cruz, for over two years and they were sexually active with each other from the beginning of the relationship and were always safe, expect for one time. Last year, Rivera went through 16 hours of labor to give birth to her child.
After Rivera had Jordan, she was lucky enough to get help from both of her parents and her boyfriend who stood around the whole way through but still this was not enough. Both Rivera's parents work full time jobs and John's parents did not want anything to do with them.
Cruz and Rivera wanted to finish school. However, there was little money coming into their household. Rivera and Cruz, who live together with Amy's parents, start their day with probably only four hours of sleep because Jordan wakes them up in the middle of the night with crying. Rivera's mother recently was laid off so now Cruz is the only one bringing money home, which is not much. After long days at schools Rivera comes home to her baby boy and Cruz heads to work at Burger King—4 to 11PM shift, which does not allow for him to see his son while he is awake.
Rivera's mother has had job offers but they don't have a night shift available, which would be necessary because then there would be no one to watch Jordan." Daycare is way too expensive nowadays. It is not worth it for me to pay so much for us to end up broke within a week," Rivera explained. Rivera and Cruz are both due to graduate this coming year but are still struggling to stay in school, and Cruz needs to continue working. "I think with a daycare center at school, it would help us out a lot. It would allow my mom to get a job and it would maybe allow John to see Jordan more," Rivera said. "It would have also allowed me to stay in AP (advanced program) classes and give me a much better transcript to get into college, hopefully one day."
Rivera tries to be a normal teenager but sometimes it's just too hard. "I have to put my son's needs in front of my own," said Rivera. "It might not be the life I planned and it might be very hard at times but it is my life and I am not going to throw it away."
Daycare is a very important factor in a teen mother's life; it's needed because no one can take care of the child. There are not many high schools in New York City that provide daycare, so some schools are now debating whether or not they should. "It would allow teen parents many advantages and the teachers would lose focus from the non-teen parents. It just would not be fair," said 16-year-old Amanda Lopez.
Lopez is one of a few students who feel daycare is telling the teen parents that it was okay to get pregnant," I know they should get a second chance, but no one told them to be irresponsible and get pregnant. So now they have to deal with the consequences," Lopez said.
