My mother used to say a phrase I’ll never forget. As a teenager, there were times that I would refuse to do as she asked, would stomp my feet in anger, or argue that she didn’t love me. But she would always reply, “Wait until you’re a mother and you’ll see why I worry about Read more
Brookes Ebetsch took only a long weekend off work after giving birth to her daughter in Texas in 2011. Her employer didn’t offer paid leave, and she and her husband couldn’t afford to take the financial hit of having her take weeks off. Her daughter, Sabina, arrived on a Thursday and Ebetsch was back at Read more
Most married couples with children are satisfied with their relationships. There is only one problem with the dour and dismal portrait of heterosexual marriage painted by Liza Mundy in this month’s Atlantic cover story. It’s wrong. In her bleak rendering, contemporary marriage comes across as unequal, unfair, and unhappy to today’s wives. Wives are burdened Read more
In 1985, Mary Anne Warren coined the term gendercide to refer to the ritual eradication of women and girls throughout the world. More recently, the heartbreaking film It’s a Girl documents the effects of this practice on the numbers of girls and women in China and India. It makes for difficult viewing, particularly when confronted with the Read more
Kids need a dad and a mum, not just “parents”, because, as a new study shows, dad does different things for the growing child than mum does, at least some of the time. I know this will not impress die-hard gender egalitarians, but most mums and dads will quickly see the point. The study tracked Read more
This year’s Australian Catholic Bishops Social Justice Statement focuses on the family. It is put into useful perspective by the publication the Bishops’ Pastoral Research Office September E-News Bulletin headlining the 2011 Census statistic that only 50 per cent of Catholics aged 15 and over are married. The often talked about nexus between marriage, the family, and the Catholic Read more
The family is the first and fundamental school of social living: as a community of love, it finds in self-giving the law that guides it and makes it grow. The self-giving that inspires the love of a husband and a wife for each other is the model and the norm for the self-giving that must be practiced in Read more
A Peruvian expert who has been studying the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico for 34 years, says 13 microscopic figures that appear in her eyes hold a powerful pro-life and pro-family message. Jose Aste Tonsmann said the tiny images in the eyes include an entire Aztec family and are a sign from Read more
A study published recently shows that many children in Australia think that their parents work too hard. The Australian Institute of Family Studies points to a growing lack of balance between work and home. Parents’ concerns about work, and about bringing work-related stress into their families, were similar to their children’s concerns. Professor Alan Hayes, Read more
Pacific parents need encouragement to acknowledge and listen to teenagers by negotiating which traditions best support their wellbeing, says a Samoan sociologist. Fiva Faalau, who graduated with a PhD from Massey University’s Albany campus last week, says while her study of 45 Samoan teenagers revealed diverse family structures and parenting styles, some parents need to Read more