parenting ages

[burntcopper]

Just read an au fic where Merlin pretty much adopts Mordred while still in Ealdor and the village colludes with him to say that the mum ran off to the city so that no-one'll be able to point at Mordred as a druid boy (Merlin fortunately having the same colouring as Mordred so it's plausible). Merlin is 19 and Mordred is 5-ish.

I didn't think anything of it. the comments, on the other hand, had quite a few americans going 'seriously? that young?'. thinking about it, I've seen quite a few fics where american readers are going 'underage teens having sex and babies? WHA?' whilst the Brits and Europeans are going 'They're teenagers, it happens, let us show you the stats on underage pregnancy in the UK'.

Am I just getting to see a very innocent sector of fandom or is it merely that the rest of the world is far more matter of fact about the issue of teens and pregnancy? (yes, the tabloids are obsessed, but everyone else is generally resigned to it happening as a fact of life)

Comments

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

the major head spin seems to be when the character is stated to have had sex or got preggers *below* the age of 16 (which merlin would have had to have been for this fic). I'm just majorly surprised that they've got a does not compute when it's fairly common.

I hope you laid the bitchslap well and good on whoever was putting forth that argument.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no comment could persuade the poster from her position that Austen Should Have Known Better and that 18 is the Natural Age of Consent.

It's a rather odd reaction, really, for it to seem so odd to a reader.