Free Republic

Public conversation about family estrangement has intensified following comments by Oprah Winfrey discussing the growing number of adult children who choose to distance themselves from their parents. Critics have accused her of promoting what some call a modern “cut-off culture.” Supporters argue she is simply giving voice to people who feel wounded by their families. But the truth is more complicated than the debate suggests. Family estrangement is not a phenomenon limited to abusive or dysfunctional homes. It happens in families that, from the outside, appear loving, stable and responsible. It happens in homes where parents worked long hours, sacrificed...

American families are in crisis… In the U.S., fewer young people are getting married, and they are having fewer children. They struggle to afford a first house… Groceries are expensive; mortgage rates and housing prices are crushing. Whatever the future holds, America’s young parents know it almost certainly will include having to take care of aging Boomers and their own small children at the same time, with a demographic structure more weighted toward the elderly than at any other time in history… The current administration and Congress were elected at least in part on promises to meet these challenges. And,...

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić has separated from his fiancée, Anamaria Goltes, he told ESPN. Sources close to the situation also said Dončić is in a custody battle over their two daughters. "I love my daughters more than anything and I've been doing everything I can for them to be with me in the U.S. during the season, but that hasn't been possible, so I recently made the tough decision to end my engagement," Dončić said in a statement provided to ESPN on Tuesday. "Everything I do is for my daughters' happiness and I will always fight to be...

Matthew Alvarez Interviews Joyce Simmons, an American Patriot

For decades, parents and kids battled over predictable issues like unfinished homework and messy bedrooms. Not anymore. A new national survey shows technology has overtaken chores and schoolwork as the leading cause of parent-child arguments, signaling a major shift in how families clash at home. Talker Research surveyed 2,000 US parents of children ages 8 to 17, along with their kids, revealing that screen time disputes now dominate family life. The survey was conducted online between Wednesday, Nov. 19, and Tuesday, Nov. 25, and was commissioned by Aura. According to the findings, 28 percent of parents cite technology use as...

David Brooks is one of the best-known public intellectuals in America… I have found him gracious and humble in person and have followed his writing with appreciation over the years. However, I was more than surprised by the headline of his latest Atlantic essay: “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake.” He notes that in the year 1800, three-quarters of American workers were farmers with large families living together. Until 1850, roughly three-quarters of Americans older than sixty-five lived with their kids and grandkids. Nuclear families (a husband and wife living with their children) were surrounded by extended or corporate families....

The number of adult couples choosing to get married yet intentionally maintain a child-free life as "Double-Income No Kids" (DINK) couples is increasing. But what does their reasoning say about our culture and the future of our country? Read parts one and two of this series. Key Takeaways: * The number of couples who say they plan to never have children is rising in the United States. * Many say they enjoy being able to spend money and time on personal luxuries, like dining out, vacations, and hobbies. * The focus solely on one's own personal pleasures and experiences is...

If there's any recording worth keeping of Charlie, or sharing with the likes of those who don't know what he stood for, it's this one. It's no accident that God had this speech be one of the final marks he left on earth.

As I compiled this message, the month of October was knocking on the door, and we’ll soon be in the midst of it. The older I get, the faster time seems to speed past. Living here in Wisconsin, we value our spring, summer and even our fall months very highly. Because we know January is coming. There’s no stopping it. Today as I write, the weather outside is beautiful. Warm, bright and sunny. The leaves are starting to turn color, but the peak time for viewing the spectacular colors of fall is still a few weeks away. We just had...

Americans are shocked that conservative Christian Charlie Kirk was assassinated because radicals on the left could not tolerate debating the issues with him on college campuses and elsewhere. They also are surprised to learn of the deep interconnectedness and complicity of the LGBT community in the violence and hate coming from the left which has culminated in Kirk’s assassination. They shouldn’t be. I have experienced this hate and violence for nearly two decades as I have advocated for traditional marriage, the biological basis of gender, and free speech. It all began with Prop. 8 in 2008. Proposition 8 was a...

A massive coalition to overturn the Supreme Court’s ill-conceived 2015 ruling instituting same-sex “marriage” was announced yesterday night in Washington D.C. While LGBT activists and their woke allies have for decades asked, “How does my gay marriage affect you?” the panelists at the National Conservatism conference (NatCon 5) answered resoundingly, “In the worst way possible” when it comes to kids. For years, homosexual activists have portrayed themselves as victims of heteronormative culture as they sought to establish the right to legally marry, to obtain children, and to claim an array of additional LGBT imagined “rights.” They argued that there would...

For years, the left has repeated the mantra that the “root causes” of crime are poverty, inequality, or lack of housing. But history tells a different story. America a century ago was far poorer, yet far safer. What did we have then that we’ve lost today? Stable families 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, functioning schools 📚, and enforcement you didn’t dare test 👮‍♂️. Family Breakdown 💔 The single biggest driver of crime is the collapse of the family. In the 1950s, most children—black or white—were raised by two parents. Today, single-parent households dominate in many communities. Children raised without fathers are exponentially more likely...

It’s not every day that one gets to see private childhood home movies of someone famous. But I had such a privilege some 30 years ago, when I produced a feature on Dr. James Dobson, who died last week. He founded and led for decades the worldwide ministry of Focus on the Family, which became a virtual media empire, reaching millions of people worldwide. After he left Focus on the Family, he created “Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson.” I was privileged to be a guest on that program a couple of times. Gary Bauer, co-author with Dobson, continues programming...

The world's leading authority on food insecurity has confirmed a famine in Gaza. In a report published Friday, the United Nations-backed group of experts finds that over half a million people parts of north Gaza are at risk of dying from starvation, and hundreds of thousands more people face catastrophic shortages as the famine spreads to other areas. "As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed. The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading," the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, report says. The images of skeletal children...

James Dobson, the influential conservative Christian therapist, author and radio personality who founded Focus on the Family, has died at the age of 89. The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute announced Thursday morning that Dobson had passed away following a brief illness. He is survived by Shirley, his wife of 64 years, two children, and two grandchildren. “Dr. Dobson was a pioneer — a man of deep conviction whose voice shaped the way generations view faith, family and culture,” said Gary Bauer, senior vice president of Public Policy at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, as quoted in the announcement....

A 71-year-old Florida woman is behind bars after authorities say she lured a father and his two daughters to her property and held them at gunpoint in a bizarre case that’s left authorities reeling over what caused this strange incident. According to the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Department, Helen Litchfield has been charged with three counts of kidnapping, three counts of aggravated assault, and one count of armed burglary. She was arrested Friday and booked into the Wakulla County Jail. The incident began on August 4, when a father and his two daughters, both under the age of 13, were fishing...

A Chicago man has been jailed after allegedly robbing a 14-year-old boy of his iPhone, gym shoes, and hoodie at a West Side bus stop—then getting beaten up by the victim’s relatives when they tracked him down minutes later. Dnario Brown, 18, is charged with robbery in connection with the June 16 incident, which unfolded near a bus stop at Roosevelt Road and Central Park Avenue, according to a Chicago Police Department arrest report and court documents reviewed by CWBChicago. Authorities said the 14-year-old was walking at 2:40 p.m. on June 16 when four males approached him. One of the...

A New Jersey man has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s Tesla, alleging that the EV giant’s design defects led to a fatal crash on the Garden State Parkway that claimed the lives of his parents and teenage sister. New York Daily News reports that Max Dryerman, a 19-year-old resident of New Jersey, is seeking damages from Tesla following a tragic accident on September 14, 2024, which resulted in the deaths of his 54-year-old parents and 17-year-old sister. The family was traveling in a 2024 Tesla Model S on the Garden State Parkway in Woodbridge when the vehicle veered off...

The alleged killer of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband allegedly texted his family afterward, saying, “Dad went to war last night,” according to TMZ. The 57-year-old shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, allegedly dressed like a police officer and drove a car equipped with lights which resembled those of a police cruiser as he carried out his attacks. Hortman and her husband were killed in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife were shot in their home as well, but both are expected to survive. Breitbart News reported Boelter was...

Western Slope ranchers and elected officials urged Colorado Parks and Wildlife and its commission on Thursday to take more aggressive action in mitigating the impacts of the Copper Creek wolf pack on local livestock operations. The Copper Creek pack was recently tied to four livestock attacks in eight days at ranches in Piktin County, leading Parks and Wildlife to kill one of the pack’s male yearlings. The attacks took place at McCabe Ranch at Old Snowmass, Crystal River Ranch and Lost Marbles Ranch. “The one thing you guys can do for us is we need to remove this pack,” said...