Americans ambivalent toward single-parent families

This is an article found on physorg.com announcing a new article published by the Journal of Marriage and the Family. This article describes findings from a single-parent family study of teh evolution of attitudes toward single-parent families. The questions of why Americans form single parent families and their expression of ambilivalence toward themselves. Very interesting. I want to see the whole article now.

Increase in marriage licence...is it a disincentive to marry or an incentive to get counceling?

This is a short but sweet article. I have heard of states lowering marriage licenses to get people to marry but this article says just the opposite. It is planned that the increased fees will pay for counseling for couples who wish to get a divorce. Is this really fair? Does this provide a disincentive or an incentive?

Compromise between gay marriage and religious liberty

This is a very interesting article which provides the two sides of the gay and marriage debate and offers a compromise. Although I dont think that this will really go anywhere, this is an interesting compromise which I believe has footing. What do you think of this possible compromise?

Article

Ashton Kutcher Gives Out Marriage Advice Via the Web

This is interesting especially for those of you who are MFT. Ashton Kutcher is using his marriage to Demi Moore as a model of a good marriages and is providing advice to fans online.


The Post Chronicle

The electric new paper

Same-Sex Couples Challeng DOMA

Advocates of traditional families and marriage have been stating for years that in order to solidify "one man, one woman" marriages, a constitutional amendement is needed. DOMA which was signed by President Clinton, ensures that the Federal governments defintion of marriage remains traditional.

Here is the first of perhaps many lawsuits to come challenging DOMA as unconstitutional. Knowing that this would eventually come, advocates have been wanting to pass a consitutional amendment with no success. This will be interesting to follow over time.

Video

I have two husbands: A polygamist diary.

I just saw this on MSN.com and thought it was very interesting. It is a short narrative about a polygamist and her way of life. This makes me wonder...sincegay/lesbian marriage is an important issue currently, I can forsee this becoming a legitimate form of "coupling" in the future. Your thoughts?

Article
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29239960/?GT1=43001

Continuation of Octuplet mother.

I have commented at the bottom of my last post... I would like to continue this discussion a little more. Please read through my last post and comment.

Octuplets mom about the father

So, I couldn't help but bring up the topic of the single mother who gave birth two weeks ago to 8 babies. Although this has been a while ago, interviews of the mother have just come out. I would like to start a discussion on this topic in relation to the overall effects of this situation to the family, children, and support that will be provided from a number of sources.


This first clip is a question from the mother in response to the biological father and his possible role in the childrens lives.
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=af062c54-a60e-4c4d-af5a-93def940d84c

Secondly, this clip is a brief interview of the mother, neighbors, and the cost of raising 14 children.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/nbc-today-show-nbc-today-show-spokesperson-octuplets-mom-is-joyful/2288180774/?icid=VIDLRVNWS08

I am torn on this. I believe that it is fine to be a single mother and the use of invetro to become pregnant is acceptable. However, at what point should mothers not have as many children as they want (in a sense). I do know several families with 10+ children but none of these were single parent families. I am thrilled with this mothers enthusiasm to be a mother but should she be allowed to put both herself and her children at risk, should she get government support for this, and what is socially acceptable and what is not?

Government attacks single parents in UK

I know that I have posted some articles related to the United Kingdom on this blog, but I think it is important to look at what other countries have and are doing legislatively. As Dr. Piercy has us read articles in class about other countries, I think it is interesting to look at other countries policies and hypothesize about what would or could happen if similar policy were to go into affect here in the U.S.

As I stated in my introduction to this blog, I wish to take both sides of the argument for the two parent family. Therefore, this article is in regards to legislation that was being passed last year in the UK and its negative impacts on single mothers. My question to you is what do you think of this type of legislation? Is this fair? What would be the alternative? Would this work in the U.S.?

Data: Enemy of the Democrat -- Single-parent family edition

This is a very interesting blog post from Doug Ross. The arugment that is portraid is that if infrastructure is so cruicial to the country and the governments economic bailout, then why isn't "the family" part of it. Although this is a very conservative piece it bring up issues such as crime, welfare, legislation, and fatherhood. Also has some very interesting statistics.

Article

Two parent family and poverty

Here is a news realese that I found was quite interesting. Patricia, since you are interested in poverty, what do you think?

Article
How the traditional two-parent family is at higher risk of poverty than a single parent.

The first of the many posts to come is the most recent news article which I could find about the two parent family. This article comes from the California Republican Caucus describing how the single family is not cutting it when it comes to children. They hypothesize "a campaign to shift societal norms" in order to overcome the shortfalls which are being seen.

Take a look and tell me what you think?
Briefing Report: The Failure of the Single Parent Family

I have chosen a topic!!!! I have decided to focus this blog on issues related to the two parent traditional family. Now, I am not going to take a particular side on this issue; instead I wish to create discussion on the policies and issues surrounding this topic. I also want to ask questions such as: Is the traditional family the best? Can other families work as well or better than the traditional? What policies help and hinder the traditional family system? and What is the political feeling toward this issue right now?

I think that this will be an interesting topic and will allow my to branch out into other areas as well instead of just marriage (which to be honest, I kinda want to do something a bit different). All are welcome to comment, argue, question, and debate this topic. I look forward to it.

Picking a topic

So, I am not sure what my topic should be. I have so many areas of interest I am not sure what to do? Any ideas?