...statistically the first year of a child’s life is the period when most marriages end...Totally shocking, makes me doubt the existence of civilization.
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PS:
1. We could say that the above is a snapshot of a society in transition, not a permanent state of affairs. One would devoutly hope so!
2. We could say that the above is not a problem to be solved at all. IMO, no pre-industrial society could have survived such a chronic problem. In the modern world, indeed, government is being asked to take up the slack:
Amanda Marcotte:
...we need federally subsidized day care, more worker protections for working mothers, better maternal leave (and maybe even mandatory paternal leave), more flex time at work, and less social stigma on motherhood.
3. Religion and tradition served to hold these types of things in check; but they've been discarded as superstition. Also is argued that the American religious actually have more divorces than atheists. This seems to be based on the work of George Barna. A good critique of Barna is available here. Please read through the entire series of posts.
Perhaps more on this later.
