The World vs. The Family

This may be news to some. Families are being changed as time goes on! In my Family Relations class this week we talked a lot about research and how that affects our perception of what is right and wrong. We mainly talked about how things are changing from structured two-parent families to single-parent families, divorced families, same-sex couples as parents and all sorts of different combinations. I found this website with some statistics from the last 50 years.

(https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/17/1-the-american-family-today/) "The share of children living in a two-parent household is at the lowest point in more than half a century: 69% are in this type of family arrangement today, compared with 73% in 2000 and 87% in 1960. And even children living with two parents are more likely to be experiencing a variety of family arrangements due to increases in divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation. Today, fully 62% of children live with two married parents – an all-time low. Some 15% are living with parents in a remarriage and 7% are living with parents who are cohabiting. Conversely, the share of children living with one parent stands at 26%, up from 22% in 2000 and just 9% in 1960." 

I thought this was fascinating. How could a family drastically change in a short amount of time? We have lived for so long with the basic unit of family and all of a sudden we change it? I do not like this.

Personally, I have observed differences between families in the community that I grew up in. I had friends with divorced parents, with two parents that are lesbians, and a lot of other different circumstances. How could we be at the lowest point of children living with both parents? How can we influence positive shift in these numbers.

I grew up in a family with a mom and a dad. A "traditional" family. We are far from perfect. I will actually be talking later about my family and how that has affected me. But, for now, I wonder... why all of a sudden we see a rip between these traditional family structures that have existed for centuries? How does that influence young adults and their desires to start families? What is satan doing to destroy the family, and how can we gain stronger opinions on the blessings and strength that come from families with one mom and one dad? 

With all of these statistics and many more cases of marriage and family, how does that effect people like me... for a while I didn't want to get married. Marriage from my perspective and stories I had been told all sounded and looked unappealing, and unattractive. I had seen reports of divorce and heartbreak made me have a bad taste of marriage in my mouth. I know that this was satan steering me away from what has been done for centuries that has been proven to boost life's satisfaction and joy. My goal in writing about marriage and family is to help young adults my age and like me, to get excited about marriage and creating a family.

 Despite the statistics of traditional families being jeopardized, we can combat all of it to create lasting loving families. While I have observed the decline of families and tradition all around me it makes me disappointed that we have changed so much from such a sacred part of our lives. I'm not saying all families and situations are perfect, but I am saying that families are important. We learn in them, we grow, we develop skills in families. Everything that comes with traditional families cannot be replicated.