Word: parented
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...marital sex is generally not perceived as courageous. Murphy Brown's decision was. Her lionization in the media, and by society as a whole, sent an unmistakable signal: that a good single parent is the equivalent of two married parents...
This message should be avoided. Although two parent families are hardly free of problems, overall they do contribute to much more stable, happy children and family life. In an article, "Dan Quayle Was Right," in the April 1993 Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead" writes...
...After decades of public dispute about so-called family diversity, the evidence from social science research is coming in: The dissolution of two-parent families, though it may benefit the adults involved, is harmful to many children, and dramatically undermines our society... Children in single-parent or step-parent families are more likely than children in intact families to be poor, to drop out of school, to have trouble with the law--to do worse, in short, by most definitions of well-being...
...disheartening as it is to admit that Quayle is ever right, in this case, he is. We should not engage in moral relativity, assuming that all parental decisions are equal. Our society has a clear interest in emphasizing that two-parent families are much less dysfunctional than single-parent families and stepparent families. We should stop believing that parents' choices do not affect their children...
...root of this value-neutrality might be society's unwillingness to admit that the trend toward single-parent and step-parent families is harmful. We tend to respect parents' free choice in decisions about marriage--decisions that, in many cases, benefit the parent. When people divorce, they gain expanded freedom and escape from unhappy marriage. When they remarry, they gain added companionship and further economic stability. When they choose not to marry at all, they maintain their freedom to live as they choose. But this happiness too often comes at the children's expense. "The amount of deviant behavior...