Our society pays a very high price for this.
There’s a recent study that notes the biggest contribution to the “acheivement gap” between whites and minorities in school is due to the single-parent households. Kids do much better with both parents.
But I have trouble finding people much younger than me who believe that “making a relationship work” is actually something you could do. It’s all about how they feel. If they don’t think they are getting the most out of a marriage, they will happily move on. I call it selfish.
But that’s just the way it is — people think their own happiness is the most important thing in the world, and that’s what movies and TV teach us, that we should all find what is best for us, and if that is your motivation, it is pure, and therefore unquestionable.
Sadly, conservatives, and deeply religious families, are not immune. This is two for the Palins. I’ve got elders in my church with kids who get their girlfriends pregnant, and girls who get pregnant, and are now single fathers or single mothers.
It’s a shame.
“....only 42% of kids are in a family with both birth parents.”
.
Not surprising.
Isn’t that the American way where 50% of marriages end up in divorce?