Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Good and bad news

Unlike a lot of the prophets of ecological catastrophe, I don’t view a healthy birth rate as a bad thing. So the report I read today was pretty good news. There were 4.3 million births in the United States in 2007, a record…

More babies were born in the U.S. in 2007 than any year in the nation's history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday.

The downside is that with alarming speed we see that more and more kids are being born out of wedlock.

The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40%, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.

There is a disconnect that is growing between marriage, family, spouses, children. The old fashioned notion of a married couple (of two different genders) having children and raising them together seems so 1950’s. Now we have an almost limitless variety of iterations of what constitutes a family. As men and women wait longer and longer to get married, and then even longer after marriage to start their families they are having a harder time getting pregnant, and it seems as if a lot of women are skipping a couple of steps and going right to having children intentionally out of wedlock. The desire for children has changed from something that is shared with a husband and becomes something done strictly for self-gratification, so why wait around for some guy to marry you? Unfortunately it is the children involved who pay the price for never even having the chance to have a family comprised of a mother and father, both at home and sharing in the raising of their children.

1 comment:

I am the Clay said...

Wow, I am suprised by that stat!! It's hard to believe the birth rate is higher than ever.... as I find that American has become so anti-child...... but as you mentioned so many single mamas out there. I have a few single mom friends who are Christian who have adopted children from orphanages and I truly do commend them for their big hearts, but I do wonder about the not having a dad part.
Our family is definately 1950ish.... dad works full time , mom is at home, bakes, cooks, cleans, etc. Yes, I do put on lipstick before husband comes home and try to look nice. Yes, I am old fashioned. I know I know... but I like it that way and it works for our family. The kids are secure, happy and stable. I am not so sure it would be the case if i was single or working full time, or even part time for that matter.
Kids need 2 committed parents. God created the first family to be a woman and a man, one flesh.... whenever humankind has stepped away from God's ordained plan we have reaped the consequences, and as we can tell from our society today ,... it's not good.

Great post,
gloria