CM Magazine: Be My Baby

________________ CM . . . . Volume IX Number 8. . . . December 13, 2002

Be My Baby.

Joanne Culley (Writer, Director & Producer).
Toronto, ON: Joanne Culley Media Productions, 2000. (Order from: Magic Lantern Communications Ltd., 10 Meteor Dr., Toronto, ON, M9W 1A4).
24 min., VHS, $39.95.
Subject Headings:
Teenage parents.
Teenage mothers.
Grades 8 and up / Ages 13 and up.

Review by Jocelyn A. Dimm.

**** /4

excerpt:

"Being a mom with a new baby is scary. It's like babysitting for a really long time. We don't have enough money to get through to the end of the month because my daughter's diapers as so expensive."

"People tend to look down on you when you're a teen parent."

(Kristen, one of the teen moms featured in the film, Be My Baby.)

Be My Baby is a no-nonsense, twenty-four minute video that, while being sensitive to the circumstances in which the teen parents find themselves, does not hesitate to present the reality of being a parent while still attending high school. There are five stories told by five teen parents, three young women and two young men. Each of these young parents discusses the financial and emotional challenges s/he faces each day. From living with their parents to being on social assistance, trying to finish high school, and missing out on time they used to spend with their friends, they discuss the kinds of futures they see for themselves and their children.

Also featured in the film are programs that have been established to help out teen parents. These range from community support groups bringing teen mothers and their babies together in order to provide peer support and health services, to daycare in high schools so that the teen mothers will have an opportunity to finish their schooling.

The teen parents provide some advice to other teens considering sexual relationships and possible parenthood:

"Wait. Your life is on hold."
"Don't have sex without a condom. No one wants teens to have babies."
"Don't do it if you don't have to. It's lots of responsibility."
"Be careful with birth control. Be responsible."

Along with the video comes an extremely informative pamphlet that offers statistics on teen pregnancy in Canada, the aims of the video, questions to use with the video, and further resources on the subject.

Highly Recommended.

Jocelyn A. Dimm is a sessional instructor and a PhD student at the University of Victoria where she teaches drama education and young adult literature in the Faculty of Education.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

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