Occasionally I'm struck by a question on popular culture and am curious how others see the situation. As with other running series found here ("heresy of the month," "rare words," etc.) these questions might get popped into the blog.
Question of the moment #1: Why is it acceptable to have a lot of children if you're a "blended family," but somehow questionable if you had all the children from only one marriage?
Is there an implicit argument that marriages result in children and so, in following that logic, the more marriages the more children people should expect? Is it not odd that people are more scandalized by a couple that has remained married has had a large family than they are that two people have married and divorced numerous times resulting in a sometimes complex inter-relationship of siblings and parents?
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things that make you go hummm.
ReplyDeleteClass mobility. It is believed that two parents are unlikely to provide upward class mobility for their children if the children out number them. It is excused in blended families because 1) they are assumed to have access to non-custodial parents 2) the ideal arrangement was already compromised.
ReplyDeleteI hate to over-reduce, but since Victorian times the upward mobility of the middle class was both the great strength of our economy but also gave rise to the greatest evils in our society.
To add to David's comment about upward mobility:
ReplyDeleteI think that people associate a multitude of children with other eccentricities which are considered unhealthy, such as isolationism (on a familial level), belonging to a cult, or just dressing weird. It's a sign that you've forsaken the "American" way of life, and nobody understands why you would want to do that.
David Dickens: A good point. In general I think when we move away (throw away) societal structures we replace them with a lesser framework (largely built on "feelings").
ReplyDeleteKellen: Somewhere along the line of "But why would anyone need 5 cars?" Moving away from children as a blessing to children as a commodity.