Don’t feel too sorry for Jamie Lynn

The announcement by Jamie Lynn Spears that she was pregnant has headlined newspapers, magazines, broadcast news, gossip columns and internet blogs for the past several days. The news has given the Hollywood paparazzi the fodder it hungers for on a daily basis. Miss Spears and her mother can pat themselves on the back now for a job well done. The heat on Jamie Lynn’s older sister, Britney, has been diverted for about the next nine months or so. No doubt the paparazzi will be more interested in the development of Jamie Lynn’s baby bump than it will in anything Britney may say or do. Remember the up-to-the-minute coverage the Hollywood press provided during Katie Holmes’ pregnancy? How about the orgasm the gossip media suffered during Brangelina’s gestation period? It seems like every time a Hollywood starlet or couple has one in the oven these days, it makes the lead story for weeks on end until the baby is born. Once the little tike pops out, though, the drama is over. After all, you probably won’t find too many paparazzi photos of entertainers nursing their newborns in public. The reality is that as soon as the child pops out and is spanked, he/she is placed in the capable hands of a professional 24-hour nanny, who is more like a surrogate mother than an employee.
Jamie Lynn may be a kid having a kid, but she won’t have near the obstacles that the average 16-year-old pregnant girl faces. She won’t need to finish school, because as a celebrity, she is probably tutored at home. Besides that, she already has more money than most people can even dream of seeing in their lifetimes. Child care won’t be a problem, because she can afford to pay for round-the-clock nursing services with her money. She won’t need a job to support herself or her baby, because she is getting plenty from Nickelodeon for her television show, which will welcome her back once the child is born. She also will receive royalties for photo-shoots, product endorsements, book deals and appearances on afternoon talk shows. And as for social disapproval, Jamie Lynn is sheltered by the patronizing tolerance of Hollywood. She will never have to worry about being shunned by family, friends and neighbors. She will not have to be held accountable for her actions and she does not have to accept responsibility, either. That has been taken care of by her mother and Hollywood.
Finally, Jamie Lynn doesn’t need to pursue child support because of her celebrity income; although I am certain that grandma will pursue it anyway, just because the more money, the merrier.
I understand that Jamie Lynn’s sob story may tug at a few heart strings. Yes, she is 16 and pregnant. Yes, she was knocked up by an older boyfriend, who is paying lip service to the Spears family and the media by stating right now that he wants to marry Jamie Lynn and become the child’s father. But he may be out of the picture by the time the baby is born. It is likely that he will be another one of these dead-beat dads whose only interest in their children is the check they are required to write every month. The guy is 18 years old. While he may be a legal adult by virtue of his age, he is essentially still an immature kid who is frightened by the prospect of parenting so early in his life. Even if the boy follows through and marries the girl, I wonder how long their union will last in spite of the child they have made together? Just look at the example that big sister Britney has given Jamie Lynn: Divorced and lost custody of her two children. Hollywood’s track record of lasting marriages has always been the pits. And the Spears’ matriarch is no role model, either. She seems to relish life as a celebrity mother and now grandmother, soaking up the fun and sun of Hollywood. Knowing the kind of moral depravity that exists in Hollywood, why would a family-oriented woman like Mrs. Spears even think of driving her girls into show business? The natural instinct of most mothers is to protect their children from exploitation; not push them into it.
Truth be told, mom may be the biggest culprit in this sinister family circle of premarital sex, pregnancies, failed marriages and custody battles. She apparently did not teach her daughters about how to handle the birds and the bees. It is one thing to sit down with your kid and explain sex, but it is another thing entirely to help a kid understand how to handle the pressures of sex. I doubt that she taught her daughters about the value of saving themselves for marriage or how important staying married is once children enter the picture. The Spears girls have no clue about the link between sexual self-respect and self-efficacy. They never learned that saying no doesn’t make them a prude and certainly doesn’t devalue their worth as human beings. Actually, saying no shows just how strong you can be. Saying no demonstrates to others that there are things more important to you than being liked, wanted or desired. It shows you are a whole person, who knows your limits and how to control your primal urges. Saying no makes you a better human being.
Sadly, the Spears girls were raised to see themselves and their bodies as objects of desire, rather than a temple to be admired and respected. They were raised to place a higher value on the physical, rather than the intangibles that make us uniquely who we are. They are clueless as to how a woman achieves esteem and confidence without using her body. Thanks, mom.
But I digress: Having said all of that, this is where my pity for Jamie Lynn Spears ends. My heart really goes out to the unborn child, whose future is weighted down with a lot of questions. What kind of mother will Jamie Lynn be, considering the examples set by Britney and grandma Spears? What kind of father, if any, will the sperm-donor be? Will the child even have its mother and father much at all in its life? Or, will mom be too busy with her celebrity lifestyle to be bothered with raising the kid? Will the child call its paid nanny “mom” instead of its birth mother? What sort of values will this child be taught? In 16 years, will the child have a child of its own, too??
There are just too many questions and not enough time to answer them all.