How American parenting is killing the American marriage

How American parenting is killing the American marriage

Sometime between when we were children and when we had children of our own, parenthood became a religion in America. As with many religions, complete unthinking devotion is required from its practitioners. Nothing in life is allowed to be more important than our children, and we must never speak a disloyal word about our relationships with our offspring. Children always come first. We accept this premise so reflexively today that we forget that it was not always so.

8 Reasons Straight Men Don't Want To Get Married

If only we had all known this...

8 Reasons Straight Men Don't Want To Get Married

It seems that fewer and fewer people in general are getting married these days, and even fewer men seem interested. Men no longer see marriage as being as important as they did even 15 years ago. "According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997--from 28 percent to 37%. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent." Why?

New law would fine unmarried mothers

New law would fine unmarried mothers

Draft legislation that includes fines for unmarried mothers in a city in Central China has sparked controversy among experts and residents.

More than 40 percent of all children in U.S. now born out of wedlock

More than 40 percent of all children in U.S. now born out of wedlock


The birth rate in the U.S. hit an all-time low last year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of those births, 40.7 percent were born to mothers out of wedlock.

Sarah Jessica Parker: Kids complicate marriage

Sarah Jessica Parker: Kids complicate marriage

Note: No way, really?

Sarah Jessica Parker is no ordinary working mother.

In 2011 alone, she's starred in two movies, produced a television show for Bravo and campaigned for a third "Sex and the City" film — all while raising son James Wilkie, 8, and twins Tabitha and Loretta, 2.

Black women should look outside their race for a successful man, says Stanford law professor

Note: Don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger.

Black women should look outside their race for a successful man, says Stanford law professor

Black women are surging ahead of black men both socially and economically, leading to a ‘relationship crisis’, says a professor of family law.

Note: I am stating no opinion on this, simply sharing that which is being said.

IL Catholic Foster Care Ruling Endangers Status of All Foster Care Agencies

IL Catholic Foster Care Ruling Endangers Status of All Foster Care Agencies

Last week, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) informed the Evangelical Child and Family Agency (ECFA) — a 61-year-old group that has been contracting with the state to place foster children in homes since 1965 — that its contract will not be renewed in the new fiscal year, since the agency won’t place kids with same-sex couples.

Unmarried? Living together? You're breaking the law in Florida

Unmarried? Living together? You're breaking the law in Florida

Unmarried couples who want to take the plunge and move in together, take heart. A Florida legislator is seeking to make you legal.

The Fall of the Traditional American Family

The Fall of the Traditional American Family

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Jonathan Last to discuss the decline of married couples in the U.S., how the advent of the pill has harmed our birth rates and what this all portends for our nation’s future.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie to Marry? Why Kids Want Parents to be Married

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie to Marry? Why Kids Want Parents to be Married

Brad Pitt and his partner Angelina Jolie for years have withstood external pressure to get married. But now that the pressure is coming from their own kids, the Hollywood A-listers are seriously reconsidering their promise to not tie the knot until gay marriage is legalized.

Report: Schwarzenegger Has Illegitimate Kid

Report: Schwarzenegger Has Illegitimate Kid

According to the Los Angeles Times, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, separated after she learned he had fathered a child more than a decade ago with a member of their household staff.

Note: Shame on you Arnold.



The L.A. Times is reporting that former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver separated after Schwarzenegger revealed he had fathered a child with a member of their household staff.



Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has acknowledged that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff, a revelation that apparently prompted wife Maria Shriver to leave the couple's home before they announced their separation last week.

Reason for Schwarzenegger/Shriver split



He reportedly had a child with a household staff member

Married couples now a minority in TN

Married couples now a minority in TN

For the first time, married couples find themselves in the minority in Tennessee.

Welfare rules discourage marriage, Brownback says

Welfare rules discourage marriage, Brownback says

Gov.-elect Sam Brownback promised to attack rules for welfare programs that he said discourage marriage as he announced two appointments Monday to social services jobs in his Cabinet.

Why the marriage gap is bad for America

Why the marriage gap is bad for America

Over the past 40 years, marriage has foundered among the poor, with the nation's attention especially focused on the decline of marriage in poor black communities. But an important new report finds that "the retreat from marriage has now clearly moved into the precincts of [both] black and white Middle America."

It is really nice to be able to start my blogging day off with some good news...

And it doesn't get much better than this.

Many of you should remember the following story from a while back...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/6365363/Social-services-to-take-baby-from-teenager-deemed-too-stupid-to-marry.html

An update was just published.

The Wedding That Almost Never Happened

Congratulations to Mark, Kerry and Ben. You have a beautiful family. And we love you all.

Good luck and best wishes from LK.

‘1,300 cases of groom kidnapping were registered last year’

‘1,300 cases of groom kidnapping were registered last year’

Director Sushil Rajpal was inspired by the real story of one of his closest friends in Bihar, who was kidnapped and forcibly married off to a bride not of his choice, to make his National Award winning film Antardwand that releases this Friday. Raj Singh Chaudhury, who recreates the trauma
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States Take Preemptive Strike Against Shariah

States Take Preemptive Strike Against Shariah

Wary of the increasing influence of Shariah law and its international adherents, lawmakers in several states are taking preemptive measures to protect their jurisprudence and infrastructure from what they see as the frightening ascendancy of a pernicious dogma.

In Louisiana, for example, the state legislature passed, and Governor Bobby Jindal (left) signed into law, Act 714, the so-called “American and Louisiana Laws for Louisiana Courts.” The law’s co-authors, state Representative Ernest Wooton and state Senator Danny Martin, cite the attempts by Muslim immigrants to cite tenets of Shariah law in courts across the nation as the impetus for enactment of the new legislation.

School expels Pakistani boy, 13, for getting married

School expels Pakistani boy, 13, for getting married

A 13-year-old Pakistani boy has taken his school to court, challenging his expulsion after he got married.

France Moves To Outlaw Mental Abuse In Marriages

France Moves To Outlaw Mental Abuse In Marriages

A proposed law in France would make psychological violence in marriages and among cohabitating couples a criminal offense. Supporters say that if the law passes, it would be the first of its kind in the world.
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Couples don't need the law to tell them how to live together

Couples don't need the law to tell them how to live together

Years ago, I used to urge my students at Oxford to conduct their love affairs in silence. I told them that the laws that govern property ownership might depend on the way in which the title of their home is registered, but also on what is said in a relationship. So if those young men said to a woman: "Come and live with me and I will take care of you – you don't need your own place", they might have found that they were in debt to the tune of half the property when love came to an end. At least my students knew the pitfalls.