Honestly? It's a new day and age. Children are being raised with 2 mothers, 2 fathers, parents who divorce, by adoptive parents, by grandparents, by siblings, by aunts and uncles, by their schools, by TV.....

So as long as the child is being raised appropriately. As long as the child is being cared for properly. Why does marraige matter? It doesn't. Not anymore.

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It matters to children who are forced to be seperated from at least one of their parents all of the time. They are forced to split their time between two households. They are asked to come to love moms new man and dads new wife. They are asked to become part of new extended families with step parents and step siblings they did not choose. Parents minimize this by saying how resilient kids are. Maybe they aren't so resilient. Maybe they just have no choice. There is not one child I know from a divorced home that does not wish his/her parents were together and would love eachother. Maybe it does not matter to you. But, I have no doubt that it matters to the kids!

But, at this day and age what's the chance that the marraige is going to last anyways? There's always a chance.... but, I believe statistics show that the divorce rate is getting higher and higher

It's worse for a child to go through a divorce then not having mommy and daddy together to begin with.

I have two nieces. They both have the same mother but different fathers. Neither one remembers when their mother was in a relationship with their own fathers. Both mourn the loss of that security. Both communicated their desire for their mom to be with their dads throughout their childhood. Both of them understood that they suffered a loss. Both have had to deal with step parents and step siblings, visitation, choosing between households for holidays. It is instinctual to want your mom and your dad to be together and to love eachother. Marriage or no marriage. Divorce or no divorce. Kids want a family.

believeinmarriage:

I am one those kids who was forced to separate my time from each parent. Of course thoughts ran through my head of what it would be like to have a so called "normal" family, but it did not damage me in any way! My mother was not on welfare and I never had any emotional or phsycological issues. I'm married with three children of my own now. I remember some friends of both single and married parent homes and I can think of more of the friend's who's parents were together who had to live through chaos BECAUSE their parents WERE married! I had other friends who were also living in a single parent home and who had very happy, emotionally stable childhoods and grew up to lead successful adult lives! This notion is ridiculous! You can't shouldn't make judgement on such a broad issue, where every single case is different and sometimes much better and no worse than what goes on in MANY married parent homes!

And as long as those kids have a family marraige doesn't really matter.

Sorry, but marriage does matter. I work in the public school system and I've seen over and over again that kids from single-parent families have far more problems than kids raised in married two-parent families. The statistics back me up on this. People just don't want to admit this because then they have to change the way they act and realize that some parts of their belief system might be wrong. Plus then they'd actually have to put the feelings of their kids before their own feelings, and unfortunately most Americans aren't too good at doing this.

Thank you Cady. People want to believe what they want to believe because it fits into what they want. People want to believe that divorce has little effect on kids, (see my resilient comment above), they want to believe that kids will adjust to new relationships and new living arrangements with little impact. Well, its bs. Kids struggle with the tug between parents. They resent non biological parents disciplining them. Nobody wants to think of the kids first. It is all about following your passion. The kids will adjust.

I agree with Cady. I too worked in public schools for 35 years before recently retiring. These kids hurt; some have poor self esteem; they have a harder time of it to be sure. Yes, people will not admit it for the stated reasons of then having guilt for their actions/inactions.