Lemme go on a mini-rant as a way of telling you not to let other's opinions of single-motherhood bother you.
I just Googled "non-traditional families" looking for a percentage of how many kids nowadays are brought up in something other than the traditional nuclear family. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I did read something that says that less than 25% of
all households in the U.S. are two-parents-with-kids households--and that figure includes divorced parents-with-children who have remarried. So making a completely unscientific guess, I'm gonna say that between 20 and 40% of children nowadays are brought up in non-traditional (divorced, single, cohabiting or same-sex parents) households.
One rebuttal I never see in all the talk about how two-parent families are the best for children is to look at what they are implying--that non-traditional families are
bad for children. Bullshit. They are saying that you children of divorce, or of single moms, or of gay parents, are worse off, more disadvantaged, more screwed up than children of nuclear families.
Does growing up without a father around doom you to a life of crime? Does having two mommies turn you into an anti-social loner? Does having your parents divorce guarantee a lifetime of psychotherapy? And does having a traditional family mean any of those things won't happen?
And even without the hyperbole, if traditional families
do statistically produce some small percentage more of well-adjusted kids (which I imagine is possible, though under whose definition of "well-adjusted"?), does this imply that the children of non-trad families are somehow worth less as people, that they are damaged goods? Is it too risky for the future life and health of a child to allow it to be born to a single mother or a gay dad? Of course not. It is the love and support of a family, and not its demographic makeup, that is important.
Non-traditional families are not
wrong or
worse, they are
different. Asking if growing up in a nuclear family is better than growing up in a non-traditional family is like asking if growing up in New York is better or worse than growing up in Nebraska. They are
different, and that is all.
katie, a princess Wrote:
Aural Fixation Wrote:
Adoption is VERRRY expensive
yeh, why is adoption expensive?
Undercoating.