A young Australian mum has revealed the rude remarks and comments she receives questioning her for not having an abortion and instead, starting a family at 19.
Annais Bolton became pregnant at 19 with her partner, Lewis. Annais is now 21 with her one-year-old daughter, Mabel-Maeve. She owns a house with Lewis and is about to start her “dream job”.
Sadly though, Annais has told Kidspot that she is frequently asked rude questions and has to deal with insensitive comments when people find out she has a one-year-old daughter. People ask “was she an accident?” and “why didn’t you get an abortion?”
Annais said while many people have told her she is “a child raising a child”, she and her partner are happy with the fact they’ll be 38 and have an 18-year-old child now that they’ve started their family young.
She said: “I was 19 when I found out I was pregnant. I was young and didn’t know how my life would pan out,[but] I’m now 21, a homeowner with a one-year-old and about to start my dream job”.
“You have ruined your life”
Annais said she and her partner, Lewis, get strangers saying things like “I bet your parents bought your house for you” and “you won’t last”.
She also regularly gets asked if she’s still with her “baby daddy” as people assume they wouldn’t be together. People say, “I bet you’re on benefits” and “you have ruined your life” as well as “you don’t look old enough to be a mum”.
Despite how happy she is, Annais admits that the newborn stage was not easy. “I struggled so badly with postnatal anxiety to the point where I wouldn’t sleep. It affected the way I was and who I was, I never really understood the way I felt was wrong until looking back”, she said.
Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said: “We tell ourselves that we have moved on as a society, that we are more accepting than we used to be. Yet Annais seems to be experiencing a deep and ugly prejudice against young mothers. But Annais is a brave woman who knows that her daughter’s life is important and should be cherished, not eliminated by abortion”.
“It is sad to hear that such vile prejudice against motherhood and children still exists in our supposedly tolerant and open society”.
