Love, Marriage, and the Baby Carriage
The following blog post is by Family Council staff member Christa Adams.
By the time I was in second grade, my friend Amy and I had our lives figured out. I was going to marry Clayton. She was going to marry Kyle. Sitting on top of the monkey bars Amy would say, “Christa and Clayton sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Christa pushing a baby carriage!” Then I’d say it back to her, and we’d laugh until the boys playing basketball nearby would ask what was so funny. We’d just snicker and say, “Nothing!”
The article “Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do’” by Jason DeParle points out that our society over the past 30 years has, in actions, drastically changed that age-old mantra. As of 2009, 41% of carriages came to women before marriages, meaning that nearly half of the children born were to unwed mothers. This is up 24% from three decades ago. DeParle compares two families, showing that the family that waited to have children until after getting married had significant economic advantages over the family with a single mother just trying to survive.