Many parents, including single parents, are raising well-adjusted, moral children who successfully enter adulthood. Why are these families successful when so many others are not? What do they do that others don't? More importantly, how can you successfully help your children in this often-perilous journey to adulthood?
We saw in the previous
chapter that the two societal trends of increasing divorce and placing children
in daycare so parents can work have made it more difficult for parents
to rear moral children. Both trends have had a significant impact on
children.
Marriages today seem to be much more fragile than in previous
generations. Fewer people are getting married, and when they do, they are
older than previous generations were at their first marriage. Couples are
also having fewer children and are divorcing more.
The breadwinner-and-homemaker couple with several children
of previous generations has been replaced by today's postmodern family-often
characterized by single parents, blended families, unmarried or remarried
parents and two-career households.
With the deconstruction of stable family units of previous
generations, more single parents have been economically pressured into placing
their children in daycare so they can have more freedom to earn a living.
The result is that children are not receiving the training they so desperately
need from their parents-the adults who can have the most profound
influence on them. Devoid of moral instruction, many children create problems
for their parents, teachers, themselves and society at large.
In spite of these negative trends, many parents, including
single parents, are raising well-adjusted, moral children who successfully
enter adulthood. Why are these families successful when so many others are
not? What do they do that others don't? More importantly, how can you successfully
help your children in this often-perilous journey to adulthood?
