When Your Teenage Son Discovers He Has A Child What Should You Tell Him?

Many parents have faced the unexpected news that a teenage daughter is pregnant. There is alarm, dismay, regret, and ultimately resignation. Sometimes there is anger and disappointment. There are those who think abortion is the answer to preventing shame, embarassment, financial burdons, or simple inconvenience.  But what happens when parents discover that their teenage son has created a child? Do they distance themselves from the family of the girl? Do they challenge the girl to prove the paternity of their son? Do they get angry and disgusted at their son? Do they urge abortion? Do they urge their son to get married? How do they handle grandparenthood at a time when their son is too imature to be a husband and has no knowledge of how to be a father? When parents say "You have to be responsible" to their son, what exactly does that mean and what are they willing to teach him to do in order to fulfill his role as father in the life of his child? Do they prepare him to be a husband to the girl he has gotten pregnant when he reaches legal age or do they urge him to wait for someone "better"? How should parents of a teenage son who has produced a child respond?