Posted on 12/31/2015 5:21:42 AM PST by servo1969
In 2014, just 14 percent of children under the age of 18 were living with parents in their first marriage with a father who worked and a stay-at-home mother. In the 1960s 50 percent of children lived in that family environment, declining to 26 percent in 1980 and continuing to decline until the 1990s when Pew reports the level began to remain more steady.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Bingo. My wife and I fall into this category and we manage, but frankly it’s a struggle most of the time. Kids ain’t cheap. Frankly, I don’t blame a family one tiny bit for adding that extra income.
We forget that, nowadays, a single income family is a luxury. Part of the reason that we are able to make it is because I make a fairly decent (though by no means exhorbitant!) salary. When I grew up, unless your father was a serious professional, or was lucky enough to have one of the few union jobs at the Ford plant or in the steel mills, both parents worked. (The 80’s may have been great for people in the cities and suburbs, but rural, blue collar areas like mine have always faced more challenges.) And this wasn’t women’s lib, “empowerment” work, either - it was more like working the swing shift behind the counter at the gas station, or a barely-above minimum wage shift at a struggling factory. By the time you paid for babysitting and gas, you may end up clearing an extra fifty bucks a week...but that was the difference between just barely making it on your own, or going on food stamps.
In other words, June Cleaver baking cookies as the kids got off the bus was a Hollywood convention for most of us.
*think think*
The media wishes to establish an equivalence between the never-married, multiple-sperm-donor demographic and all other variations on the "Cleaver" ideal.
So, if a married mother holds a job, Zot. If the mother is employed while the father stays home, Zot ... you're just like the multigenerational welfare establishment (even though this is actually the arrangement that produces the highest achievement level in children).
I agree. I’ve been a stay at home mom since my oldest was 1 year old. I recently started working part time evenings and weekends just to help make ends meet.
Most of the young families we know have parents in their first marriage, but mom works part time; even among homeschooling moms.
You’re right! The country is screwed! Destroy the family and you destroy the country.
I’ve been able to stay home since I put my husband through his bachelor’s degree. Through a combination of good management and divine providence, it’s always worked out.
However, based on my reading and the people I meet, I think the number of mothers who were never in paid employment while they had children is much smaller than nostalgia would have us believe.
For example, I have a friend at church who is exactly my mother’s age (78). Her husband was a State Department employee - doing something with medical technology in places like Afghanistan, Burma, and India - and she says casually that she “worked for the Agency” once their children were old enough for school.
“Asian children are the most likely to be living with a stay-at-home mom and working dad in their first marriage. Almost one-fourth (24%) are, due in large part to the high rates of marital stability among Asians; fully 71% of Asian children are living with parents in their first marriage.” — Pew survey 2015
In 2013, 67% of black children lived with a single parent.
— CHILDREN IN SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES BY RACE by National KIDS COUNT.
Me: Is this disparity due to “Asian” privilege?
As written, it excludes families where there was a short and early, childless marriage, followed by a traditional SECOND marriage (like mine), with children and a stay-at-home mother. I think that makes the figure somewhat lower than it should be in thinking about the children’s environment.
I think you are right. Both of my grandmothers worked as needed on the farm, my mom went back to work when we were all in school.
We have been hammered over the years with medical issues. Two kids with chronic conditions and the medications and office visits add up. Big time. Now another one has been diagnosed with an extremely painful and severe skin issue: all my herbs and essential oil made it worse. The prescription alone is $572/month plus monthly dermatology visits and blood tests. Every penny I earn won’t quite cover his costs. I miss having my home be the focus of my time everyday but it’s no longer an option. Thankfully we can have our homeschool work done and supper in the crockpot before I leave for work. Tonight should be a profitable night waiting tables. It will be busy and I am praying that God will see my middle aged self through this job that is a young person’s game ;-).
I wish you the best! Waitressing is a tough gig, but it offers more variable hours and usually a higher per-hour take than office work. I’ll pray you get a giant New Years tip from someone!
We’ve had some medical issues with one of our teenagers in the last few months, and we’ll have to cut back some other things to cover our new insurance deductible, starting tomorrow. “Can we get our nails done today?” she asked. “Sorry, the money for getting nails done went for your medical bills.”
Thank Ronald Reagan. As governor of California, he signed the first no-fault divorce law in the country, against a huge amount of moral outrage and dire predictions by the Christian right at the time. This is one of three legs of the stool that led us were we are. This law rewards the immoral for their actions, coupled with welfare that rewards having children out of wedlock, and “anti-discrimination” laws that don’t permit discriminating against unmarried couples for employment or renting.
The underlying problem is acute, but I suspect that many of those being defined as 86% of contemporary families, are not really families at all. Social chaos is not part of any legitimate family structure.
I stayed home for a long time. My hubby has a good job.
We have a large family & as the kids have gotten older the bills have gotten bigger.
They’re all in school now - I may as well bring in what I can to save up for college & retirement.
Besides - I think we are about to engage in major house repair (sigh)
That is a very perceptive interpretation. It’s also a nice way to make us feel isolated.
“In other words, June Cleaver baking cookies as the kids got off the bus was a Hollywood convention for most of us.”
Luckily for me it was an actuality. For most now, it isn’t. Need 2 income families in order to survive the Obama economy. Unless of course your “job” is popping out illegitimate kids so you can make a pretty good income off of welfare while not having to work.
“——— In the 1960s 50 percent of children lived in that family environment———”
—
That figure seems low to me.
I was raising my kids in the 60s and know only ONE mother who worked full time.
.
Thanks :-). I swore when I graduated from college that my waitressing days were over. Fast forward 19 years and I’m back at it. I like people, that helps.
Hope your daughter’s medical issues are resolved quickly!! Happy New Year!
Thanks, we hope so, too. I gave up waitressing when I became a typist, but typists don’t exist anymore. I’d have to either start over from scratch learning tax preparation, or come up with a new career.
Or crank up your anxiety level: you think you're a successful traditional family, but NO! You don't meet the "Mom never has a job" criterion, so you're DOOMED!
No matter what, it means that more government intervention is needed to fix everything.
“If this is true, the work of globalist, atheist, marxist masters has already been done. The cake is in the oven. Resisters are simply arguing over how long it should cook.”
Lots of factors, but NO-FAULT DIVORCE is among the biggest, at least for the white community.
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