In today's world, we always hear about how teenagers cannot possibly be parents, and when we watch shows like Teen Mom, and we see how awful they are, its pretty much true.
But in ancient times, like Greece, the average age was (I think) 14 to be married off, and have kids with an adult man.
Knowing how teenagers can be self-centered and pre-occupied with themselves, no matter how much parents can prepare them for their upcoming family. How did they manage to raise children, and why is there such a stark contrast between them and today's teenage parents? Do you have any books recommendations relating to this topic?
But in ancient times, like Greece, the average age was (I think) 14 to be married off, and have kids with an adult man.
Was it, though? Perhaps one of our ancient history experts can chime in here (not my area), but for most of human history the average age of marriage has been way higher than that. Generally speaking, most Euro-American societies have stigmatized childbearing by un-wed youth, and have encouraged young people to wait until they're well established in life (ie, have a livelihood) before they get married and start having children.
One thing you might need to consider is whether the "teen" parents of today have trouble because they're teens, or because they're not married and haven't "settled down" into a career yet.
Unwed pregnancies, of course, do have a way of happening and this is nothing new. I know that throughout the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth century un-wed mothers had an extremely difficult life, because they were not only struggling to care for a child but were also stigmatized as "fallen women" for having had children out of wedlock. For much of this period, it was so difficult for them that many of these women simply gave up the child for adoption and tried to pretend it had never happened. Others - especially black, minority, and poor women - were basically consigned to a very difficult life and would have difficulty staying out of poverty, especially if their families weren't willing to help support them and care for the child.
The other thing to consider is that "teens" weren't really a class of person or an identity until the 1940s - and a lot of what we assume to be "natural" behavior for teens today is likely a product of their being kept in school and out of the labor force for as long as they are. So at least some of the people who were having children while they were teen-aged in the past were regarded as fully grown men and women, and did have jobs and livelihoods that allowed them to get by. There's no reason to think that they necessarily had an inherently more difficult time being parents because of their age - what matters is the social and cultural context and their role/position in society.