IT was refreshing to read about young mums getting together in the community and helping each other, my hat goes off to them.

May I, however, make a suggestion that they progress their good work into helping prevent the rise of young mums by doing a school tour in Halton to 14 to 16 year olds and letting them see first hand what it really is like cutting short your educatio, careers and freedom by becoming pregnant.

Living off the state is not a honourable thing to do. I feel very sad when I see, quite often, babies pushing babies around.

That is not a life it is a sentence and one that should be, and could be, avoided.Yesterday I saw something that made my blood boil. A young mum smoking away, holding a baby who was 12-18 months old and deliberately blowing smoke into the baby's face and then gave, what looked like, her younger sister aged eight to nine years old, a drag of her cigarette. That cannot be the act of a responsible person.

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