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Old 05-04-2012, 04:52 AM   #102
DanaC
We have to go back, Kate!
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 25,964
yeah...I hear that a lot myself. But have found very little evidence of it in the world around me.

They used to say it when I was a kid too. Because back then there really was a council house or flat ready for you if you had a baby. I knew a few girls who had babies when we were teens. One of them, a lass called Donna, was 15 when she realised she was pregnant. She was thrilled. And yes, being able to get a flat was part of why she was thrilled. It would, in her words, get her away from her mum and dad's house, where she was woefully unhappy. But it wasnt why she had the baby. And it wasnt the only reason she was thrilled.

The particular demographic who might rely on such housing if they have a baby are also statistically likely to have had family breakdowns and a chaotic homelife. For a young lass in that situiation a baby can mean a lot of things, including something that is truly 'their own'.


very few of us do anything major in our lives because of a single solitary motivation. Even those for whom extra beneifts or a social house are part of their rationale, will have other reasons all mixed up in there. Including, potentially, the notion that this is what you do as a grownup. This is how you mark yourself an adult: you have a baby and you get your house and you're all set in the grownup world.
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