parenting ages

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)

the slashdragon will be pleased

I has tickets for the BFI Merlin S2 ep1 screening + cast and crew talk. MWHAHAHAHAA.

but seriously BFI, what box office opens at 11:30am? *theatres* open at 10am, and that's on days when they don't even have a matinee.