STLCC student Christa Boshers tackles motherhood and college
Alex Kendall
-Art & Life Editor-
Christa Boshers, 21, grabs a diaper bag and her schoolbooks before buckling her 13-month-old daughter, Payton, into the car seat. Boshers is dropping Payton off at her parents’ house before finishing some last minute homework and driving into work.
“I like everything about being a parent,” Boshers said. “I don’t know what I would do without her.”
In her second year at STLCC-Meramec, Boshers’s life changed when she found out she was pregnant at the age of 19.
“This pregnancy changed my life very dramatically,” Boshers said. “I had to be good with time management now that I was having a baby.”
In 2009, a total of 409,840 infants were born to 15 through 19-year-olds, with more than half of those unintended, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Boshers had Payton on Jan. 2, 2010, and determined that she would continue on with her schoolwork.
“I started [Meramec] a week and a half after I had her,” Boshers said. “I had online classes right after she was born so it was much easier.”
Even with online classes, Boshers said that having Payton and going to school was hard at first.
“She was only a couple weeks old and I didn’t know how to balance her and my life,” Boshers said. “It was extremely hard and overwhelming, but I eventually got through it.”
According to http://guttmacher.org, teen pregnancies have declined dramatically in the United States since their peak in the early 1990’s, with 2008 being the lowest level in nearly 40 years.
Even with the numbers lowering each year, only about 50 percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by age 22, versus nearly 90 percent of women who had not given birth during adolescence, according to http://cdc.gov.
“[Single mothers] need to finish school first, because if you don’t have somebody there to help you, it is almost impossible,” Boshers said. “It is possible but it is very hard.”
With the support of her parents, Boshers said she is able to keep calm and understand being a parent.
“My parents have helped make me a stronger person and parent because they have given me tips on what to do in certain situations and how to handle it,” Boshers said. “They have been a great support.”
Doris Johnson, a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) student advocate at Meramec, works with students and single mothers in need on a daily basis. Even with the help she provides, Johnson said that it is the single mothers who end up helping themselves.
“A lot of times it’s the single moms that go to help each other; it is more beneficial than some of the help that I can provide,” Johnson said. “They have more resources and more suggestions; it’s an opportunity for them to come together and help each other.”
With her new responsibility, Boshers says that most of her friends now are other single mothers and parents who understand what the other is going through and how they deal with it.
“I don’t really hang out with a lot of the friends like I did in high school anymore,” Boshers said. “I mainly hang out with people who have babies.”
To Boshers, Payton has helped her understand who she is as a person and a parent.
“It gives me a lot more responsibility and a different outlook on life,” Boshers said. “She is someone that I know will always be there for me. That’s why I love being a parent.”
Boshers said that the little things that Payton does are some of the most memorable.
“I like seeing the new things she does, me being her mom, me seeing her do her first thing; it’s super exciting for me and I love just seeing her reach each milestone,” Boshers said.
To many teens, college is a time to party and live carefree. Boshers said that with having Payton, she does not take her life for granted now.
“I used to never wear a seat belt and now I think to myself, what if I get into a car accident and die?” Boshers said. “There is nothing like a mother-daughter bond. And I know I’m the best person to take care of her and to be there for her. And I would not want to jeopardize that.”
Boshers said she plans to go back to classes on campus now that Payton is older.
“I trust more people with her now so it will be easier to go back to school, physically back to a classroom,” Boshers said.
