Title: On being a young parent...
Publication date: February 25, 2011
From: Parent Up (http://parentupdenver.org/) - videos created by young parents from the Denver-metro area
[Speaker - Rachell Branham]
My name is Rachell Branham and I am 22 years old.
I felt when I was pregnant very confused, very scared, didn't know who to go to and I was living on my own at the age of 17 going on 18--a very difficult age.
Andrew is 3 years old. When I let my grandfather know that I was pregnant, much to my surprise, he was very happy because he was going to be a great-grandfather. And then once I told my grandfather -- who's been my rock all the time -- then I told my brother that he was going to be an uncle, and he was, like, "Naah, you're lying to me." So...
My grandfather passed the year of having my son. He died in October 4th of 2007. I think he was ready to go because he knew I had someone to look out for me, and me to look out for them.
We...we knew my grandfather was gonna die. The doctor told us six months, and my grandfather was living out a span of, you know, four years because he was, like, "I'm gonna see you graduate," which he did, he got to see me graduate. And I had my son to see me graduate too. My son was born by then.
A main concern from me was making sure that I am the mother that he needs, and I am his rock as much like my grandfather was for me.
No, I have never filed for child support. I don't think it's necessary. If you don't want to be in the kid’s life, why am I forcing you to?
But, I am also giving consideration that my son needs more help than what I can give him. And he...that's what child support’s for. The shift that I have about doing child support now is solely because of my son. My son was living with my mom and I was living in a truck and because I got tired of doing that.
My views on child support come from a lot of different places. I think most of them come from my mom because when we, when I was younger, me and my brother were younger, we didn't have a father or anything in our life and she always talked bad about it.
So it seemed very negative to me, as a child, so I figure if I didn't bring it into my child's life it wouldn't be something negative for him.
Although I do have a lot of friends that are, like, "How dumb are you? You really need to do this." And it's, it's... their views are coming into my play now because it's, like, yeah I do. I need to do this for my son, not for me.
A young child needs emotional support, physical support, financial support. And then... they also need love.