I was raised by a teen mom and I realized early on that my life was drastically different from most of my friends and peers. Much like any other family, we had our own troubles. My mother had me when she was 16 to my real father but married another man when she was 18, which was as soon as she could. Looking back, my only set back was having to watch my mother juggle school, homelessness, grief, and just general depression from being kicked out of her house by her parents and losing my stepfather when I was 10. She definitely tried her best to raise me and even tried to stay in contact with my father's children from his previous relationship after his death. I can attribute most, if not all, of our struggles to be due to her age but I now realize that not all children with teenage mothers grow up the same way I did. I used to believe we were all the same... I have a friend who had a relatively normal life, even though her mother had her when she was 17.
