From Politico:
If you‘re wondering where Bristol Palin got the $172,000 in cash to buy her home in Maricopa, Ariz., — Loan from her parents? “Dancing With the Stars” payoff? A gift from her baby daddy, Levi Johnston? — it looks like part of it might have come from her work as an abstinence advocate.
The blog Palingates, soon followed by the AP, reported that according to tax forms, the teen mom earned $262,000 in 2009 for her work with The Candie’s Foundation.
Bristol was just 18 and a new mother when she became an ambassador for the foundation in 2009.
Is it just me or does abstinence mean …not having sex? So if you don’t have sex, how do you end up with a trashy boyfriend and a baby? I know these young kids and all and the generation gap, but there are just a few things I simply don’t understand.
Why is Bristol the poster child for the abstinence crew? If I were looking for an abstinence roll model for my kid, I think I would pick out someone perky, pretty, engaging, and CHILDLESS. I would also get someone younger.
There is just something that is screwed up here. I don’t fault Bristol for being a single mom. I think her taste in men is hideous but I could say that about a lot of people. I fault her for even thinking it is appropriate for her to be Ms. Abstinence. How many young women now want to follow in her footsteps so they can go Dancing with the Stars and the other things Bristol does that appear to be cool?
Sort of like the rationale of AA, isn’t it? I went down that bad road, woke up to the fact that I had gone astray, and decided to follow the straight and narrow. Seems to me that being able to say that you’ve been there and that “there” isn’t so hot is a pretty good lesson plan.
@Wolverine,
I believe that AA has a much better success rate than abstence programs do.
I would think good role modeling would have a better chance of success.
he who is without sin may cast the first stone
And the sin is?
I have never set myself up as a model for abstenence, much less taken money for it, so I suppose I am pretty sinless.
“How many young women now want to follow in her footsteps so they can go Dancing with the Stars and the other things Bristol does that appear to be cool? ”
For that to work, they would have to have a famous, controversial mother.
How dare a single mom try to find work and earn a living to feed her child. She ought to just find herself a husband and become a homemaker.
That’s how the begining of this thread is coming off.
@CArgo, exactly, but as you and I both know, kids often don’t think things through to their logical conclusion.
@marin, only to you who seems to think it is ok to be doing a job without the qualifications. Want me to pose as a rocket scientist? I don’t have the credentials. Palin doesn’t have the creds for abstenence either. She looks like a hypocrit.
The Palins have definitely gone at America to line their pockets. I guess that is capitalism.
I guess it doesn’t matter about respect if you can make a bundle.
As for single moms just trying to feed their children…..most can’t pay cash for a house. I think she could send a better message to America’s teens. How many would criticize Miley Cyrus for her behavior?
If she lacked the qualifications she wouldn’t be pulling in the money she’s able to. I think your anger is misdirected. Why be angry at her when there are people paying the people that sign her checks. Shouldn’t you instead be angry at the teen aged girls that go to watch her? Or the parents of those girls?
How about Snooki getting 35k for her talk at Rutgers? Is that Snooki’s fault, too?
Miley is a train wreck waiting to happen.
Is this worth talking about?
Okay, Ill play along… Hey everyone! Lets all bash a young woman for making the most of a difficult situation!!! Yeah, look at this young, unwed mother! Who the hell does she think she is telling other young people about her experience and the consequences of sex at a young age! She, as a young mother, can’t possibly relate to other young people going thru the same exact thing she did.
She should have just gone and visited her local Planned Parenthood facility instead of daring to talk about abstinence. How dare she go thru with the pregnancy and then tell others about her experience. As Bill Maher would say… “she is a c@nt!”
Hmmmm…. so you would prefer a non-smoker telling you that you shouldn’t smoke, or, someone who has never had a drink telling an alcoholic how they don’t HAVE to drink… I don’t get it. What is the point of this thread again? I’m lost.
Oh wait! No I’m not, her last name is Palin. Sorry everyone, I get it now, sorry. I’m just not in the right mindset I suppose for this sort of superficial partisan gotcha style of subject. Just let me put my far lefty liberal specs on… ah, here they are. Now I’m ready!
OMG! How in the hell did Bristol Palin get the $172,000 in cash to buy her house!!!! Say whaaaaaat?!? Good ole fashioned supply/demand economics! GET THAT EVIL POS!
Perhaps if Bristol had made a big public deal about aborting her baby, she’d be getting cheered on as a hero by the Palin-haters.
Danny Boy, grow up.
There is no point as far as you are concerned. Again, you have never been able to hold a discussion.
Emma, you know, I get very offended when people are alive and on the hoof and people start discussing aborting that person. Just so you know.
I think Sarah Palin is unfit for the presidency. I do not hate her. Big difference. This thread has absolutely nothing to do with abortion. It is all about good role models and making excessive amounts of money based on who you are.
I have never bashed Bristol Palin for having a baby. I have no idea if she has ever had an abortion. It isn’t any of my business. I do not think she is a good role model for abstenence and she has been given opportunities that many other single mothers haven’t been given because of her controversial mother.
The real problem single mothers aren’t the daughter of Sarah Palin or Moonhowler, for that matter. They are the mothers who have children who grow up in generational poverty. Those kids will be under educated and probably not have good nutrtion. They will not have the support systems of middle class single mothers.
I think we send a very bad message with Bristol Palin being the poster child for abstenence. In the first place, she wasn’t. Let’s start there.
I don’t care if she dances, marries Levi or kicks him to the curb. I care if she is held up as an example.
I actually listened to one of her speeches on abstinence. I’m not a supporter of abstinence only sex ed programs and, to be honest, would advise my children to live with the person they want to marry before getting married because you find out quite a bit about a person when you live with them, and I’d rather they find out they weren’t compatible before they get married rather than suffer through a divorce. So, even though I consider myself a kind-of sort-of almost but not quite conservative, I definitely don’t follow the traditional conservative line on this issue (or most social issues for that matter, hence the kind-of sort-of almost but not quite conservative bit).
So I listened to one of her speeches with some rather less than positive expectations. I was surprised. She actually did approach the topic from the standpoint of someone who made a mistake and wants to keep others from making the same mistake. She didn’t really go the whole moralistic route, which is what I’d expected, but the “this is what I did and the price I’ve had to pay is pretty steep”. I would have taken a different approach and argued that people ought to consistently use a reliable form of birth control, but she took a different tack.
I don’t know. If I were to look to someone to learn from, it would be someone who’d been there and done it. If I were to look to someone for advice on loosing weight, I’d probably talk with someone who’d lost weight rather than some skinny lady who has never dieted a day in her life. If I were to look to someone to advise me on abstaining until marriage (or until I was in a committed relationship with the financial means to support myself and any potential offspring), I’d probably look to someone who had experience in that area. She’s clearly had sex and knows what abstaining means, so, at least from my perspective, she has a bit more credibility because she knows what’s she’s missing.
Then again, Rutgers paid Snooki $32,000 to address their students, so clearly colleges will pay anyone to speak!
Thanks for the perspective, Kim. I am glad she handled it that well. I guess I just see her as not having it that tough. She is paid a hundred times more what the ordinary single teen mother is paid. I don’t criticize her for it. Again, I just don’t think she is the role model for abstenence.
And for those who have said I am beating up on single moms…you really know nothing about my family or me or you wouldn’t say that.
And the whole Snooki thing makes me sick. Why would anyone in college what to hear that bimbo.
Your thoughtful analysis has made me look at another side of it.
This is the reality, Bristol is an example of WHY abstinence only “education” has been proven, through multiple research articles, to be unsuccessful. No one who is interested in really preventing teen pregnancy would advocate abstinence only education.
@Elena
I totally agree if you are speaking to the masses. If you are just speaking to your own kid, fine. I might even say fine if you are speaking to a youth group at Sunday School, if that is your job. But in a general education setting, I agree with you 100%.
Elena, how is Bristol such an example? Do you know if her education was such? Are you saying that, that she and her boyfriend were ignorant of contraception?