Wayward Families

When considering the fall of the family (the deviations from traditional principles and values), maybe we should ask ourselves, when did we become “SPACED-OUT?“

• Maybe the spacing began with limiting or putting distance between child births or limiting the number of children a family would have
• Or maybe distancing happened when the divorce statistics peaked
• Or when mother’s took off their aprons and went into the workforce

Today many families have been impacted by economical, personal and social changes that have directly affected the core relationships of family life. JonAk

Though much of the public seems unaware of it, family scholars believe that—generally speaking—children are best off growing up with their two married parents. These are the children most likely to get the education crucial for maintaining a middle-class life in an advanced economy, to remain stably employed, and to marry and raise their own children to go on and do the same.

But it is not well understood why the married couple—or nuclear family—works so well for kids. The most intriguing explanation I’ve seen can be found in a little-known 2002 book by the sociologist Brigitte Berger: The Family in the Modern Age. It recalls an old-fashioned era of sociology. There are no charts, regressions, or metrics; it is, rather, an exposition of economic, social, and demographic history. Yet it manages to anticipate and explain what today’s empirically grounded sociologists have repeatedly discovered about families and child wellbeing. Read full study