Posted on 02/18/2012 5:00:14 AM PST by reaganaut1
LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.
Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.
Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.
One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.
“Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well, my husband has been a pill for 30 years and I would have owed him alimony if we divorced. I stayed #1 to give glory to God and His picture of Jesus and the Bride, #2 because I vowed I would, #3 because of the kids. God has honored that repeated decision many ways. This is all to say that unless we really understand marriage as a God - ordained picture of Himself and His Bride - that each lays down life for the other for a greater good than ourselves -we are doomed to fail.
Bold statement that needs saying of. I'm not so certain there are enough of us who haven't been blinded by this man and his agenda... People have become so blind it defys imagination...and willingly so.
You're right...and that IS the problem....everything else people are claiming is the problem are simply the consquences (evidence) of that act.
If everyone followed that ridiculous advice, families would cease to exist, and the human race would end.
It’s way beyond obvious that goat granny and caww are referring to illicit sex outside of marriage that results in illegitimate children; not legitimate relations within marriage that result in children cared for by a mother and father married to each other!
Sheesh.
Au contraire, LJ.
Many use the “well if the babies were never born in the first place” statement to duck the very real questions of what to do when those babies are born.
Wow. Great post. You hit the nail on the head.
:O) thank you for your clarification of what we were talking about...you be right on....GG
Since the question of what to do with illegitimate children was not being directly discussed, I will ask them.
Goat granny and caww, DNA says:
Many use the “well if the babies were never born in the first place” statement to duck the very real questions of what to do when those babies are born.
I'd be interested in both your responses. Here's mine:
First of all, no tax money whatsoever should be used to support illegitimate babies and their mommies. None. Private charity only. With all welfare (of every kind) cut, taxes will be lower, and people will have more money to donate to the charities of their CHOICE.
Private charities can then use their own judgement to decide how best to help children from what used to be called broken homes. There are many ways I can think of - making fostering and adopting easier (with no homosexuals allowed of course), homes run for the mothers and children with a "house couple" to help the mothers learn life skills, apprenticeship programs to help the mothers learn to be self-supporting, etc.
ALL privately run.
And without government support, it will be quite amazing how quickly the tsunami of illegitimacy will diminish. I guarantee it.
My husbands teaching was short and sweet.....I better not have any pregnant girls knocking at my door. We had 4 boys and 1 girl....no pregnant girls knocking at our door...Dads can be quite intimidating when necessary..but girls also knew the word......NO.
Self respect is a lot different than the phony self-esteem that is taught today....of all the kids I knew, there was only 1 shotgun wedding.
It would help.
But if unwed mothers were still getting an all-bills-paid financial free ride via forced transfer of income from the father of the children, the illegitimacy would still be getting subsidized and would still continue.
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