Brokenland:
Unmarried Mothers
18 June 2014

¶ Arguably our most “conservative” belief is that parents ought to remain married until their children graduate from high school, and that divorce prior to that point ought to be stigmatized, at least in the absence of criminal conduct. So, we’re appalled by the figures produced by Olga Khazan in The Atlantic. (via The Morning News.) There’s nothing really new in the numbers or in their likely significance, but when we think of all those youngsters growing up without the attention they need, we grieve. And we all share responsibility for the conditions outlined here:

Finally, let’s say you don’t finish high school. Many of the higher-paying jobs you might have been eligible for 50 years ago have been outsourced or computerized, and the remaining jobs are low-paying and dull.

Meanwhile, babies are great; they’re like a little mini-job that you get to love. Plus, being a mother is being someone.

“Many young women think they will be able to care for the kid—they have a mother who can help, a sister they can rely on,” Cherlin said. Particularly among the very poorest Americans, “this is a way a woman or man can be a successful adult when all other paths are blocked.”

“Anyone who refuses to assume joint responsibility for the world should not have children and must be allowed to take part in educating them.”

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