Piper Palin - a rebel in the making?

Amidst the coverage of the family of Sarah Palin in recent days, the Times have printed a couple of photographs that suggest that the real rebel in the family is not the expecting Miss Bristol Palin, but little sister Piper.

In the family photographs, she always seems to mis-match her demeanour to that of the other family members. This is from p.29 of today's Times:

And this was from Saturday's issue:

It has been interesting to see how the media and the public have reacted to the admission of teen daughter's pregnancy. I have thought for some time that it is not good enough to wait until a pregnancy occurs to an unmarried or school age girl before a family, parish community or (Catholic) school work out how they will respond. At that point it is too late to be able to effectively and compassionately argue the Church's teaching on charity and forgiveness, and on human life. This needs to have been taught and lived already by these communities, so that what happens when the need arises is the living out of what has already been recognised as true. Sign posting of services that provide an alternative to abortion also needs to be readily available ahead of any specific need.

Parents need to work out ahead of time what they will say and do if their children - and I think here of the boys as well as the girls - are involved in a teen or school age pregnancy. And the children need to have confidence of the warmth of charity that they will receive from their parents and the surrounding community if they need it. Parishes and schools also need to work out their responses. What can a parish do, for example, so that a pregnant teen will still feel able to attend Mass on Sunday, rather than dropping out from the practice of their faith?

This is the text of the announcement by Sarah and Todd Palin of their daughter's pregnancy:

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

John Smeaton has a relevant post headed "Let's rally round Sarah Palin's family".