Hello! Welcome to the first week of my discussion! The topic I chose to address this week is, "Current trends in the family, and the impacts of those trends" Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

     Some of the more noticeable and widely accepted trends in the family are: Women working outside the home, half of all marriages ending in divorce, and lastly cohabitation.

Women Working Outside the Home  

     According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “The labor force participation rate—the percent of the population working or looking for work—for all women with children under age 18 was 70.5 percent in 2016. The participation rate for married mothers (67.9 percent) remained lower than the rate for mothers with other marital statuses (76.0 percent).” Let’s look at these same statistics nearly 70 years ago.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the year 1950, only 23.8 percent of all married women who had an employed husband also worked.

     Could it be that there are more problems with society, broken families, and rebellious adolescents because of mothers choosing to work outside the home? Before I continue let’s make things clear.  I am not saying every mother that has a job will damage and ruin her family. Some mothers have to work full-time out of necessity to support their families. I am saying, however, that when a mother willingly chooses to pursue their career over raising their children, (when there is a father present who can reasonably support them) that negative effects come to the family.

     Think about it, when a mother and father both work full-time they drop their kids off at a daycare or have someone else watch their child for them 8 hours a day while they work. According to news reports by the New York Times, CBS, and Child Care Aware of America, children placed in some sort of daycare system experienced aggression and disruptive behavior in early years.  Think about it, if you were placed in some facility with a bunch of people for 8 or more hours a day wouldn’t you start feeling a bit annoyed and agitated? Sounds a bit like going to work full-time, doesn’t it?  The difference between adults and children in this situation is that children haven’t fully developed! They haven’t had experience and don’t know how to handle these emotions. I could go on and talk about the social issues these children may face but I’ll let this suffice. 

     Washington Irving said, “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” This special bond and trust cannot be achieved if a child hardly knows his/her mother because she’s always gone at work. I say, bring mom home!

Half of All Marriages End in Divorce/Cohabitation

     Why are fewer people getting married nowadays? If you’re curious, then you should find these next few paragraphs rather interesting.

     First off, there’s a statistic that half of all marriages end in divorce. Most young people think to themselves, “Well, if my marriage only has a 50/50 shot at lasting then why even bother?”.  What would you say if I told you this statistic is actually false? Here’s why: “To illustrate the problem, let’s say that 2 million couples are married in a particular year and 1 million divorce. There are 55 million other couples who remain married from previous years.” Quote from “Marriage and family the quest for intimacy”.

     It could be said that 50% of marriages that year ended in divorce, but not all marriages end in divorce.  Claire Cain Miller said: “If current trends continue, nearly two-thirds of marriages will never involve a divorce, according to data from Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan economist.” Bottom line is this, if newlyweds have it in their minds that half of all marriages end in divorce (which we just proved to be wrong) then they are already setting themselves up for failure! There needs to be optimistic attitudes about marriage and the commitment to work things out when it gets hard.

     Because of the false divorce rate statistic, people will often cohabitate instead of getting married. Cohabitation is wrong. One reason, there’s no commitment to each other. Basically, cohabitating people say this to each other, “I love you and want to be with you but let’s leave the back door open in case this doesn’t turn out the way I was hoping so I can back out” What is that?! When married people overcome disagreements, struggle through hard times, live on a budget, and strive to have devotion to each other, then their marriages thrive and prosper.  It’s going through the hard times that polish and keep a marriage strong and lasting.