Pearls of Wisdom from “16 and Pregnant”

Lordy.  Did you guys catch the first season of MTV’s reality show “16 and Pregnant“?  I’d originally planned to boycott it because 1) I didn’t want to support the seeming glamorization of teenage pregnancy; and, more importantly, 2)  I haven’t watched MTV since “The Real World: San Francisco” and haven’t a clue where it resides on our program line-up.  However, I’m a sucker for ANY television show involving babies and pregnant chicks these days — I just wept through a touching National Geographic special about water snail egg sacs — and, yes, my pregnancy hormones somehow homed in on MTV with the same tenacity it tracks down pints of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie.  So I have found myself unwittingly sucked in by recent reruns of the “16 and Pregnant” drama.  Boy, oh boy, is there ever drama.

And wisdom!  This show offers parental wisdom in spades.  In the event you’ve been busy watching more intellectual fare, like “SpongeBob SquarePants” or “The Bachelorette,” I thought I would share one gem from a teenage mom-to-be, who magnanimously declared something along the lines of:

“I’m going to try to love my son no matter what.  Even if he wants to play the flute.  Or chess.”

Chess?!  Now THAT is love, my friends.

A better question is, will she still love her son if he turns out like Puck on “The Real World:  San Francisco”?   An antagonistic bike messenger with hair that would make Vanilla Ice cringe…?   I mean, the horror of chess playing is one thing.  But the embarrassment of a child’s bad hair is quite another.