Category Archives: Celebrities

It seems like every tabloid and every gossip channel is screaming with babies and who’s having them. The rich and famous are making headlines with elaborate nursery designs, fancy children’s clothes (some of which cost more than adult clothing), and the newest and most progressive in names for those future starlets and brat pack members. What many of us star gazers are failing to notice is that many of these children are born to unmarried mothers. It begs the question, “Are we teaching our youth that it is COOL to have children out of wedlock?” (as long as we give them a good name and plenty of designer clothes). The media seems to glamorize pregnancy with photos of skinny pregnant divas with a beautiful round bump and trendy clothes to hug the bundle inside. It could make any highly influenced teenager think it looks easy and enjoyable to be pregnant. Next, photos of famous mommies toting their precious infants and toy-wielding toddlers make it look like motherhood is a cakewalk as well. What they fail to portray is the hard work, lack of sleep, and disheveled appearance that most ordinary moms must tolerate from day to day. We do not have stylists, hairdressers, physical trainers for hours at a time, and a nanny to do all of the dirty work. We don’t get to sit back and applaud our child’s beautiful finger paint masterpiece while our nanny is elbow deep in purple and red glop. Young, single mothers? They would be lucky to be covered in paint than, possibly, working two jobs to support a child. Next, we have our vice presidential candidate’s teenage daughter who is doing the “right” thing and having her baby. It makes me wonder, in the midst of all of this, is it the media’s doing that having a child has become not only the “morally” right thing to do but, also, the “socially” right thing to do? Are children simply being photographed and focused upon as the result of the love between two people or as the latest in trends – a decorated keepsake tossed into the air while mom flashes a bright, straight and very white smile while frolicking at a Los Angeles park on a sunny day? Glorifying having children,mostly among unwed mothers in the media spotlight, is serving to increase the exposure to premarital sex and its consequences, making those consequences seem a trivial, if not a welcome and joyous result, of something which should be reserved for a later time and situation. The birth of a child is a joyous occasion. As the mother of four beautiful children I understand the allure of bringing little selves into the world. I just wish the tabloids would stop making it look easy, enticing young girls to go out and “get” a baby, as if it were the latest in trendy handbags to carry around.