Bristol Palin

The cover story of the current People magazine is about Bristol Palin's past few months leading up to her high school graduation. I appreciate how candid she is about life with a baby, unlike so many other new moms who proclaim that having a baby is the best thing ever. Not to say new moms don't love their children, which the do (hopefully). But if you've had a baby then you know first hand how much it sucks in the beginning. I know I've mentioned before that teen aged girls should have come to my house the first 6 weeks after Brandt was born as a form of birth control. And although I say it jokingly, I'm not entirely kidding. I appreciate some of Bristol's comments throughout the article:

"If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody."

"Girls need to imagine and picture their life with a screaming newborn baby and then think before they have sex."

Sure, she is Governor Palin's daughter so she does have more resources than a lot of other teen moms. But the article points out that there is no nanny in the house and Bristol is the one getting up with her son twice a night. She works part time and babysits on the side to pay for formula and diapers, and she is responsible for cleaning and doing laundry. She also commented on how isolating life can be for new moms.

Like I said before, I appreciate how honest she was in article and I think this story sheds light on a topic that has recently been glorified by the increasing number of celebrity moms. Celebrity moms who appear to have their shit together all the time; celebrity moms who lose the baby weight in 8 weeks; celebrity moms who aren't sleep deprived or run ragged from their children because they have a staff of 7 caring for their newborn & other kids. I hope the adolescent community takes Bristol's message to heart, because like she said in the article, "I don't think anyone realizes that it really can happen to you. Like, in an instant."