Growing Up Being A Parent
One minute CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman was flipping the phone book outside the restrooms at Cracker Barrel in Benton, Tenn. and the next he was in an ambulance with a pregnant woman, hoping paramedic Tecia Rome would get to the hospital on time.
For Rome, it wasn't uncommon to get that mom to the emergency room, or pulling a woman from a small car wreck while assisting another who had fainted. Her day job is full of drama. But her story is about her job as a mom.
Rome was 17 years old when she got pregnant with Jerrica. She went into labor before English class and later became the first kid at her high school to bring a baby to prom. Having a kid was fun, but only for about three months.
"I presented it to my mother in a way 'look, I've got to get out of the house,' " she remembers. Her mother, Wanda Ingram, says there were a lot of times when she didn't know where Rome was.
"She would leave for her friends but where she was exactly I didn't know," Ingram adds.
By this time motherhood had become a chore. Rome moved on to a new boyfriend and started partying every weekend night and sleeping in every weekend day. This went on for two years.
"My mom finally got fed up with it," says Rome.
It happened one Sunday. Ingram was just starting her day, her daughter just ending her night, and when their paths crossed that fateful morning, Ingram decided she had no choice but to kick her daughter and granddaughter out of the house.
"I wanted to always be there for my children and that was one time you couldn't be there," she adds.
"My mom knew I would find out what it's like to be a real parent. And she was right," says Rome.
Today Rome is married to a fellow paramedic named Gavin and they have a son. Jarred is now 14 months — the same age Jerrica was back when Rome thought she had so many other things to do.
"I wish I could go back because I know my mom — she's seen all that. She got to experience all that because she was the one taking care of her. It bothers me to go to work and leave my kids now."
Amazing how all those things that make parenting so tough, end up being the very same things that make it all worthwhile.
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