Tuesday 3 February 2009

Selfish adults damaging kids

The BBC reports a new study demonstrating just how bad for children our contemporary culture is. Despite increasing affluence and levels of education, kids in the West today face ever more difficult childhoods.

The number one factor cited is selfish adults. It cites research suggesting that three times as many three year olds living with lone parents or a step-parent have behavioural problems compared with those living with married parents. Well who would have guessed it.

It also dares to name the problem of families where the mother works rather than looks after the kids. It talks approvingly about the increased 'autonomy' of women: by which presumably it means the degree to which they have become wage slaves, and prone to abandonment by their husbands or lovers, and notes that even this has a bad effect on children.

At least this stuff is beginning to get an airing, but nobody is expecting the government, which commissioned the study, to act on it...

The truth is, of course, that the traditional model of a stable maried couple raising kids, with one of them (normally the husband) the bread-winner and the other (normally the wife) staying at home to nurture the family, is by far the most effective in creating a good environment for kids. Of course one can find exceptions, and of course we must be charitable to those who are in difficult situations; but to normalise (in the name of de-stigmatising) illegitimacy, lone parenthood, divorce, co-habitation, and both parents going to work etc has (predictably) increased the levels of all of them, and has been profoundly damaging to our children.

9 comments:

Mike in CT said...

No kidding. The government paid for a study to find this out? What's next, a study that finds the sky looks blue on a cloudless day, but appears red at sunset?

Ben Trovato said...

Mike

The tragic thing is that this really needs saying!

George Carmody said...

Ben's right, it does need saying. The weird thing is how people have become afraid to say such obvious stuff. There really is a fear abroad. We all feel it, even if we disagree with it. Why is that, I wonder?

Mike in CT said...

Good point GM, I don't know what it's like on your side of the Atlantic, but over here, it seems everyone is allergic to speaking their mind. Nobody wants to offend or be offended, so nobody says anything at all.

Ben Trovato said...

Mike

I'm not sure I agree with the second half of that (tho' I certainly do with the first).

I think lots of people do want to be offended: they look for offence even where none is intended. People carry chips on their shoulders - and that's part of what makes us edgy about talking about all sorts of topics...

Mike in CT said...

Ben,

I guess I've been as guilty of that as the next guy, but I find, at least around here that people try to shy away from controversial subjects so that we can, in the words of Rodney King, "all just get along." Don't say anything of substance, I'm comfortable where I am, thank you.

Yikes!

God bless

Ben Trovato said...

Mike

You and me both...


And I'm not suggesting that we should be offensive, but we do owe it to our neighbour (and to our God) to be witnesses to the truth.

Mike in CT said...

How we got here from your original post is beyond me, but I saw these stickers at the March for Life this year and just checked them out. Not Catholic, but I support their intentions:
www.liveoffensively.com

That certainly is an interesting take on the word.

And btw thanks for the prayers. Baby Mary is still hiding.

Ben Trovato said...

How we got here? Conversation, I guess!