"prom baby"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

ten years ago it was a baby born (and murdered) at a high school prom.

but now "Worried Dad in Alpharetta, Ga." has written to Dear Abby
with a report that begins:

I first heard about an alarming trend while driving my teenage
daughter to a lacrosse meet with her girlfriends. One girl in the
car, “Carrie,” said she hoped this year she could have a prom baby.
The girls were discussing two former classmates from last year’s
lacrosse team who had been unable to begin college because they had
both become mothers at 17.

Both had deliberately planned to get pregnant on prom night – hence
the term, “prom baby.”

... My daughter later told me that several of her other friends were
considering trying to get pregnant near prom time so they, too,
wouldn’t have to deal with the pressures of going to college.

-----

the column is available from several papers on-line, but it's been
edited down in some.  i read it in today's Palo Alto Daily News (on
paper); the Houston Chronicle has the same version, which i take to
be the full one:

   http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/4779915.html

arnold

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