A happy mistake

Nicki Thorpe became pregnant aged 18 while at university. She is now a primary school teacher at Mark Cross in East Sussex, and lives with her daughter, Chloe, who is now six, and her new fiancè.

I was in my first year at university, studying teacher training in Exmouth, when I found out I was pregnant. It was definitely a "mistake" - I was only 18 and hadn't been with my boyfriend for very long. I was working behind the bar at a pub near my parents' house in Sussex over the Christmas holidays and he happened to walk in. We hit it off right away and he became my first proper boyfriend.

Other people's reactions were harder to deal with than my own. My parents were very shocked and disappointed. I had always been the little girl of the family, never getting into any trouble, going off to university to become a teacher - I was the perfect daughter up until that point. Understandably, they didn't want me to keep the baby. They thought I was too young, and I think they also thought, "Well that's the end of her education, her future."

But, right from the beginning, I just felt we would be OK. My boyfriend was only 21 - and unemployed when we got together - but he was happy about the pregnancy and moved to Devon to live with me. We got a little flat together - he was on benefits but trying to find work - and we managed. Even so, I almost gave in and did what my parents wanted. I had an appointment booked for an abortion, but my doctor had told me to call any time, day or night, if I changed my mind. In the end, I just couldn't go through with it.

My boyfriend did ask me to marry him, but I felt I was too young at 19. Which seems odd, considering we were going to have a baby together. He was there when Chloe was born, and we stayed together until she was about three and a half. I went back to college after the birth, and Chloe would either go to kindergarten or her father would look after her at home - he wasn't working a lot of the time. Sometimes I took her into lectures with me - everyone adored her.

I split up with her dad two and a half years ago, about six months after I started my first teaching job. It was my decision to break up with him and I definitely don't regret it. I found Chloe a place at a lovely day nursery next door to the school where I work and my parents helped out with childcare costs.

He last saw Chloe on her birthday - she's six now - but he isn't involved in her life any more. I am now happily engaged to my new partner - ironically, we also met in a pub, but this time he was behind the bar. I told him from the start that I had a daughter and it was never an issue. Chloe knew him as a friend first and things developed naturally. They have always got on very well.

We've just bought a house together and he's become a father figure to my daughter. We don't have any immediate plans for more children - my fiancè is only 24 - but things are great as they are. I have no regrets about having Chloe. She's wonderful, and we couldn't be happier.