NPR: Why children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

Kennekuk Jack wrote:

I'm a man with two young kids who had to make the difficult decision to file for divorce. I wish the author had dug into this idea and expanded on it a bit more, particularly the aspects of mistreatment and shared household responsibilities:

Kearney says she's not advocating that children live in a household filled with marital tension or where parents are unhappy or mistreating each other. As an economist, she sees marriage as a long-term contract between two individuals to pool their resources and share household responsibilities, including raising children. Two is greater than one. The genders of the parents are irrelevant.

I tell myself the kids will be better growing up in a stable environment at my house instead of living in a home filled with tension where the parents are modeling unhealthy relationship dynamics; however, I also struggle with the knowledge that they'll be financially disadvantaged, at least in the short term, until I can dig us out of the hole that we've been put in. I'm going to hang my hat on the fact that the kids seem to be adjusting as well as can be expected, but there are still times I wonder if this is the right thing and what the long-term effects on my son and daughter will be.

Anyway, thanks for the link, OP.

Precious Roy wrote:

Matt Bruenig wrote a really good reply to Kearny's book. The problem with Kearny's book is that she makes a number of big mistakes in her analysis. Mainly, piling everyone into the same bucket is the critical mistake. Kearny does not distinguish between the quality of the relationship between parents and the demographics and socioeconomics of each family. It turns out that in the US there are very high rates of poverty among two parent families due to the incredibly terrible US social benefits for families compared to other countries and lack of labor unions, etc. And there is no comparison between children whose parents divorced due to an acrimonious relationship, which resulted in a more stable home life in the single parent household versus parents who stay together for the kids or religious reasons but have a horrible relationship and are always fighting.

Link:www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2018/02/1...

Link:mattbruenig.com/2023/09/20/doing-the-m...

Precious Roy wrote:

Matt Bruenig wrote a really good reply to Kearny's book. The problem with Kearny's book is that she makes a number of big mistakes in her analysis. Mainly, piling everyone into the same bucket is the critical mistake. Kearny does not distinguish between the quality of the relationship between parents and the demographics and socioeconomics of each family. It turns out that in the US there are very high rates of poverty among two parent families due to the incredibly terrible US social benefits for families compared to other countries and lack of labor unions, etc. And there is no comparison between children whose parents divorced due to an acrimonious relationship, which resulted in a more stable home life in the single parent household versus parents who stay together for the kids or religious reasons but have a horrible relationship and are always fighting.

Link:www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2018/02/1...

Link:mattbruenig.com/2023/09/20/doing-the-m...