Teen Dads’ Tip: Wait or Feel Weight

Osvaldo Cruz found out he was going to become a father at 15, never knowing how difficult it would be to juggle work, high school studies and family.

But Cruz, now 18, said he soon learned how exhausting it is to raise a family and on Monday shared his story with a group of Mission Viejo students as part of a teen responsibility program aimed at young men.

“The things your parents are doing--guess what?--I am doing them,” Cruz told about two dozen students at Silverado High School. “And I tell you, it’s not easy.”

Cruz and another teen father, Richard Pacheco, 19, both of East Los Angeles, met with the students through Hombres Jovenes Con Palabra, or Young Men of Their Word. The five-week program, organized by Bienvenidos Family Services and the National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute, is being offered in Orange County for the first time.

“Most teen programs were geared for women,” said Gil Contreras, the project coordinator and a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

The students will attend five 70-minute workshops, funded by a $9,500 grant the school received from the Orange County Community Foundation, said Kathryn Lindstrom, a guidance specialist who wrote the grant.

For Pacheco, a change in attitude didn’t come overnight: He got two girls pregnant.

“You probably think that after the first time, ‘Why did you not learn?’ ” Pacheco told students. “But sometimes it takes two times to learn.”

“I love my son,” Cruz said. “I love him with all my heart. I carry pictures of him. I talk about him all the time. I just wish I had waited.”