NYT Article on "Rise of Single-Parent Families is Not a Good Thing"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course it’s true. I doubt any support from the government or any other institution is forthcoming. No one cares about families, kids, or even society anymore. It’s allllllll about the $$$$$$$$

COVID basically cemented this for me. We came to rescue so many industries because the economic effects, but told parents to basically pound sand and figure it out when schools and parks and supportive services closed. I have a special needs kid and that was a really sobering time for me.

[Anonymous]

Note that the baseline for comparison is a household with two parents in a stable and healthy marriage.

I am 50 years old, and I've seen quite a bit in this life. The overwhelming majority of single parent families I know are single parent for a reason - that baseline healthy 2 parents family was not feasible due to the significant issues with at least one of the parents. If the kids end up troubled, it's not at all clear to me that this is due to being raised by single parent, as opposed to the issues that led to being raised by a single parent. This is the old correlation <> causation issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Note that the baseline for comparison is a household with two parents in a stable and healthy marriage.

I am 50 years old, and I've seen quite a bit in this life. The overwhelming majority of single parent families I know are single parent for a reason - that baseline healthy 2 parents family was not feasible due to the significant issues with at least one of the parents. If the kids end up troubled, it's not at all clear to me that this is due to being raised by single parent, as opposed to the issues that led to being raised by a single parent. This is the old correlation <> causation issue.

Completely agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course it’s true. I doubt any support from the government or any other institution is forthcoming. No one cares about families, kids, or even society anymore. It’s allllllll about the $$$$$$$$

COVID basically cemented this for me. We came to rescue so many industries because the economic effects, but told parents to basically pound sand and figure it out when schools and parks and supportive services closed. I have a special needs kid and that was a really sobering time for me.

Same here. I still haven't forgiven the progressive politicians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to adequately and accurately prepare people for marriage and the rigors of family life. You know - bring people down to reality. I think Americans have a very ambitious view of marriage and partnership that rarely aligns with reality - hence so many are absolutely miserable. We need to better prepare young people for being heads of household. Our current navel-gazing/everyone is special/take me as I am/fragile culture is doing nobody any favors.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daniel Patrick Moynihan said this 60 years ago and was derided for it. Turns out, he was a prophet.

You beat me to it! The progressive wing of the Democrat Party has done as much damage to this country as has MAGA/Tea Party/Freedom Caucus.

+1 The progressive glorification of poverty while implementing policies that ensure the cycle of poverty is just insane.

[Anonymous]

Too many conservatives seem to think that it's acceptable for the benefits to children and men of the "stable, two person family" to come from the subordination of women's status and options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Note that the baseline for comparison is a household with two parents in a stable and healthy marriage.

I am 50 years old, and I've seen quite a bit in this life. The overwhelming majority of single parent families I know are single parent for a reason - that baseline healthy 2 parents family was not feasible due to the significant issues with at least one of the parents. If the kids end up troubled, it's not at all clear to me that this is due to being raised by single parent, as opposed to the issues that led to being raised by a single parent. This is the old correlation <> causation issue.

This is a really good point. I feel like it would be helpful (if you could get enough data for statistical relevance) to include single parents by choice and unstable two parent marriages as district from single parents by circumstance and stable two parent families.

I heard a presentation once that cited research showing that for adoptive families, children adopted from foster care to single parents had as good outcomes as those adopted to two parent families. Obviously, the families interesting in adopting that pass an adoption home study and children placed in foster care are not representative of the whole population but I think it’s an interesting data point in comparison to the general population data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An absent parent is better than an abusive parent.

True but it’s not a binary choice. People need to choose more carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course it’s true. I doubt any support from the government or any other institution is forthcoming. No one cares about families, kids, or even society anymore. It’s allllllll about the $$$$$$$$

COVID basically cemented this for me. We came to rescue so many industries because the economic effects, but told parents to basically pound sand and figure it out when schools and parks and supportive services closed. I have a special needs kid and that was a really sobering time for me.

This has been true a lot longer than Covid. We have no local family so we decided I would be a SAHM because we have no backstop. Thank goodness we can count on each other because we can’t really depend on anyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Note that the baseline for comparison is a household with two parents in a stable and healthy marriage.

I am 50 years old, and I've seen quite a bit in this life. The overwhelming majority of single parent families I know are single parent for a reason - that baseline healthy 2 parents family was not feasible due to the significant issues with at least one of the parents. If the kids end up troubled, it's not at all clear to me that this is due to being raised by single parent, as opposed to the issues that led to being raised by a single parent. This is the old correlation <> causation issue.

This is a really good point. I feel like it would be helpful (if you could get enough data for statistical relevance) to include single parents by choice and unstable two parent marriages as district from single parents by circumstance and stable two parent families.

I heard a presentation once that cited research showing that for adoptive families, children adopted from foster care to single parents had as good outcomes as those adopted to two parent families. Obviously, the families interesting in adopting that pass an adoption home study and children placed in foster care are not representative of the whole population but I think it’s an interesting data point in comparison to the general population data.

If She used actual data and actual statistics and research methods that were standardized. Then she wouldn’t be able to make up some bogeyman and sell a
bunch of books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Society already overwhelmingly favors two-parent families in literally everything. That’s why it’s so hard to be a single parent, duh.

If its so hard, why is there a rise in single parenthood? Seems like you agree with tge author that this isn’t a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Society already overwhelmingly favors two-parent families in literally everything. That’s why it’s so hard to be a single parent, duh.

If its so hard, why is there a rise in single parenthood? Seems like you agree with tge author that this isn’t a good thing.

NP. There's not really a rise in single parenting. The percentage of kids in single parent households has been stable since the '90s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Society already ioverwhelmingly favors two-parent families in literally everything. That’s why it’s so hard to be a single parent, duh.

If its so hard, why is there a rise in single parenthood? Seems like you agree with tge author that this isn’t a good thing.

NP. There's not really a rise in single parenting. The percentage of kids in single parent households has been stable since the '90s.

But much higher than the 70s. Is this good or bad?

[Anonymous]

Three or four parents would be even better IMO.