Despite his short stature — he’s barely four feet tall — and his child’s voice, 13-year-old Alfie Patten bravely stood up to fatherhood when his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle gave birth to their daughter, Maisie. “When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried how people would react,” Alfie told The Sun last week.
But Alfie may not be the father after all.
On Sunday, 16-year-old Richard Goodsell came forward to say that he thought there was a very good chance Maisie was his. “I know I could be the father. Everyone thinks I am. My friends all tell me that baby has my eyes — even my mum thinks so,” he told News of the World.
He’s not the only one. Since Alfie and Chantelle shared their story in The Sun, yet another teen, Tyler Barker, 14, has come forward to say Maisie could be his. Several other boys have said they, too, have had sex with Chantelle.
A DNA test will be done “as soon as possible” to determine paternity, said a spokesman for Alfie’s parents. “It would be prudent to have a DNA test.”
Alfie isn’t taking the news well. “Other stupid boys are lying, saying bad things, like they have slept with Chantelle too. But I am the only boyfriend she has had and we’ve been together for two years, so I must be the dad. When she found out she was having a baby, I asked her ‘Am I the dad?’ and she went ‘Yeah’ so I believe her.”
Chantelle agrees that Alfie is her first and only boyfriend.
It’s the stuff of soap operas or at least a bad movie of the week — one tiny baby and eight dads, lined up to claim her or to breathe a sigh of relief that they’ve dodged this particular bullet. One thing’s certain: The story is lucrative.
It’s hard not to lift an accusing eyebrow at Alfie and Chantelle’s parents, but while they’re certainly responsible for these two particular teens, Alfie and Chantelle aren’t the first two kids to have a baby before they were ready. Just last fall, the country couldn’t stop arguing about whether Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter Bristol was a clear sign of Sarah’s lax parenting or a national hero. And Juno so romanticized teen pregnancy and adoption that a teen girl behind me in the theater said, “I wish I could have a baby.” I almost choked on my popcorn.
About half of all teens have sex by the time they’re 19 years old. Fifty percent. One out of two. A teen who is actively having sex has less than a 10 percent chance of avoiding pregnancy over the course of a year if she doesn’t use contraception.
While I don’t think we should expect that our kids will be sexually active before they reach the age of majority, the statistics don’t lie and neither does that baby Alfie cradles so tenderly. We need to have an open and ongoing discussion with our kids about sex and responsibility, honest talk that gives them the tools and the knowledge to make smart choices for themselves as they ease themselves into adulthood.
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