As the Houston relationship counselor, I’m always interested to find articles and research that change the way I think about marriage and relationships. Recently this happened when I ran across a New York Times article on how more and more people in middle and upper classes are marrying each other, while people from the lower socio-economic classes often don’t get married at all.
Whether or not they get married hasn’t had much of an effect on procreation, though, as unmarried people are just as likely as married ones to have children. In fact, unmarried couples are having children earlier than their married peers.
This wouldn’t be such a big problem except that it often leads to single-income families struggling to make ends meet. And to make matters worse, most of these single-parent families tend to have less education, leading to lower-paying jobs. So not only do they not have two incomes coming in, the one that they do have isn’t so great to begin with. And since they’re just scraping by and only have one adult to deal with the kids, parents in these families tend not to get married because they don’t have any time for themselves to actually go out and find a good partner!
But the worst part is that children living in this kind of situation are far more likely than their wealthier, two-parent peers to end up living the same kind of life as their parents, with less education and no marriage. Help isn’t even something they think about.
Houston Relationship Counselor: Marriage Benefits Need to Be Taught
Marriage help is exactly what’s needed, in the form of education on the benefits of getting married. It isn’t a question of morals or religion, either, but quality of life for you and your children. Two-parent families make more money, have more time to be involved in their kids’ lives, and have children who are more engaged in society and school.
Some will argue that a couple doesn’t have to be married to form a two-parent family, and that’s true. Unfortunately, statistics have shown that these types of families are far less likely to survive over the long haul than those with parents that have actually gotten married. And deciding to have kids and get married later isn’t a smart idea either, because those relationships often suffer the same fate.
If you and your partner are debating marriage and children and want to know more about the benefits that being married can bring, contact the Houston relationship counselor today.
