Societal Trends and the Family

There seems to be an ongoing debate in our world today how people should go about creating their family and raising children. As time has passed, the meaning of family has changed. Some people might even say that that meaning is lost. Flashback fifty years ago or so, and you would find a stay-at-home mother, a father working to provide for the family, and four children being tended to in their home. Today we see a child packing up clothing each week moving back and forth from mom to dad because they are divorced. Some children even have parents with a same-sex marriage, or just a single mom or dad. Another option for adults that is becoming more and more common is cohabiting as well. I find this rather funny because couples who cohabitate are three times more likely to get a divorce in the future once they marry. Crazy, right? In the life we live in today, it is becoming less likely to see that traditional family that was once so common years ago. I find that very interesting because studies have shown that children are more stable when they are raised in a traditional home (heterosexual marriage). It becomes even more intriguing when we take into account that God commands us to marry someone of the opposite sex. Let me say that again: children are more stable in a traditional home. But even then, people are starting to have less and less children. This is proven with the fertility rate drop of 2.05, where it was once at 2.13.  People all over the world have been interviewed and have been asked the question of how many kids one should have, and the average answer was one or two. So, why are people choosing to have small families? Does it correlate with anything that is going on in today's world relating to the different types of relationships found now? Is there a correlation between the dropping fertility rate and the new relationships? 

Let us start with same-sex marriage. I think this is the most obvious one. People who are married to someone of the same gender obviously do not have the power to procreate. Therefore, they can't have kids unless they adopt. I'm sure we all know that adoption is a rigorous process that can take months, even years to finalize. Still, the children they adopt do not add to the fertility rate because nobody is birthing children in this kind of relationship. It is impossible. 

Moving on to couples who practice cohabitation brings a totally different set of problems. First of all, these types of relationships tend to not want to have a child, and when they do, it is more common for that pregnancy to be unintended. Second, sex in today's world is viewed more as a gratification and pleasurable activity rather than an action that creates children. Cohabiting couples enjoy the sex life more than they do the child-bearing part that comes with it, so they try their best to prevent a pregnancy. Therefore, this partly explains why the fertility rate has gone down over time.

Last but not least, divorced and single parents come into play. Again, divorce is becoming more common because people are changing their view on marriage and what it means to them.  After a person is divorced, their probability of having more children decreases significantly, effecting the fertility rate again.

According to my research and listening in on the discussions in my family relations class, I have learned so much about this topic. I hope that I will be able to keep extending my knowledge in this subject. Until next week!