Mom Says She Was Excited When Her Teen Daughter Announced Her Pregnancy — Making Her A Grandma At 35
She is overjoyed to be welcoming a new baby into their family.
Chay_Tee / Shutterstock A mom is defending her 19-year-old daughter's impending motherhood journey after receiving hateful comments from viewers criticizing her parenting. In a TikTok video, Britni Church, who often makes content about her family life and children, revealed that she isn't going to stand for people berating her teenage daughter online.
She admitted to being excited about her teen daughter's pregnancy announcement, despite becoming a grandma at 35.
"I'm gonna address this and I hopefully only have to do this once," Church began in her video, responding directly to a comment that criticized her for celebrating the announcement of her 19-year-old daughter, Crizman's, pregnancy. "First of all, 99 percent of the comments have been positive, loving, caring, and supportive."
Church pointed out that the situation is clearly not ideal, but when her daughter first told her that she was pregnant, she was truly excited about it. Church, who is a mother of 12 children, was a young parent herself and got pregnant with her oldest child at just 15 years old.
With her experience being a young mother, Church insisted that it's bizarre when parents are mean to their children after finding out that they're pregnant. She explained that no matter what is happening, her daughter is still pregnant, and whether she's upset, angry, disappointed, or unsupportive, her daughter is still going to be pregnant and will still have the baby.
"I believe a child is a blessing, so why would I be upset?" Church questioned. Showing a screenshot of a comment she'd gotten on Instagram after announcing her daughter's pregnancy, the unnamed social media user accused Church of "hyping up" teenage pregnancy.
"Whether she's a teenager or whether she's 21, 22, 23, whether she's married and this is her first child after 35 years of trying — this baby is just as exciting," Church added. "This baby is just as precious, just as wanted, just as loved ... I'm gonna be a grandma, no one can take that joy away from me."
Photo: BearFotos / Shutterstock
Church maintained that no one would be able to take the joy of pregnancy away from her daughter, either.
The mom-of-12 insisted that there's no reason for her daughter to be ashamed or sad, and there's equally no point in feeling those emotions herself.
"If you're a teen parent or ... you find out your teenager is pregnant, there's no reason to be sad," Church said. "It's okay to mourn the loss of what their plan was for their life. But trust me, when the baby is here, it's gonna add to your life."
She continued, saying that babies are always a blessing, no matter what. They never take away from anything.
It seems Church's attitude toward her daughter's pregnancy comes from being a young mom herself.
In another TikTok video, she explained the dynamics of her extensive family and the age she was when she had all 12 of her kids.
At 15, Church got pregnant with her first daughter and gave birth when she was 16. That same year, she ended up getting pregnant with her second child, which she gave birth to at 17.
"Got pregnant with my third when I was 18, had him at 18. I got pregnant with my fourth when I was around 19, and I had him when I was 19," she recalled. "I got pregnant with my fifth when I was 20, had her at 21. Got pregnant with my sixth when I was 22, had her when I was 23."
For the rest of her twenties, Church had her seventh and eighth child. By the time she was 30, Church had her tenth and eleventh child, and her last child was born when she was 32. Now, Church is 35, and about to have her first grandchild.
Teen parenthood is actually rather common if those teenagers' own parents had been young when they were born.
According to BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, teenage daughters of mothers who had their first child before age 20 had 1.57 times higher odds of pregnancy than those whose mothers had their first child after age 19.
Of course, it can be tough to hear the news that their child is expecting while they're still in their teenage years. While children are a blessing and do bring joy into the lives of people, they are also a lot of work, and motherhood is not easy. As a teenager, the rest of your life has suddenly changed in the blink of an eye, and whether it's glamorous or not, that freedom and independence of being a child is over.
However, nothing gets solved if that teenager is made to feel ashamed or ridiculed. They're pregnant, and at the end of the day, they just need to feel loved and accepted by their parents ahead of this rocky journey.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.