Polish attitudes to pregnacy outside marriage

my Polish friends 18 year old sister is pregnant -she has a boyfriend-she lives at home with parents and many brothers and sisters.

i thought it would be a bad situation but my friend said it was no problem for her parents and everyone was happy-that 18 was an ok age for pregnancy.

i find this difficult to understand as i thought catholic values were important and also-this girl hopes to go to university maybe in England

A saying that comes to mind is "No use crying over spilt milk ".

She can still go to Uni.

i agree just thought attitude strange considering Polish tradition-do many young Poles not get married now?

is it too expensive

They aint that different, honest.


Getting married can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be.

Polish "traditions" don't mean that every family in Poland adhere to them. Is her family even Catholic? It may well be that her parents have decided to support her in this situation so that her future is preserved.

Being a student is a matter of when you're ready, nothing to do with age, so if she wishes to bring up a child and then attend Uni in England she can do that even in ten years time.

Polish tradition is often to get married, and to take care of the baby. As for the parents' future, it has little do with tradition but rather with their individual personalities.

I know of two women, both got pregnant very early (one before the uni. the other as a first year student). One is a successfull researcher, now working for UNESCO, the other is a top notch doctor, one of the best in the country in her area. Both of them worked very hard but, with the help of their other halves and parents, completed their formal studies within the usual time.

Wonder what the attitude will be like when all the little "brown babies" ("just like all the other girls on the estate" Waynetta Slob,1996) end up being taken back to Poland because the Kurdish fathers have been deported.....

(suppose someone will be up in arms,but,I know Polish and I can recognise Kurdish,and thats getting to be a popular mix in this neck of the woods...)