Delayed Parenting
Following World War II the Baby Boom generation emerged, this generation had their children young as they had many economic opportunities. Since that period North Americans have had to weather a number of recessions, the most recent one being in 2008-2009. The age at which couples have their first child has increased and this is due to people wanting to advance their education, launch careers, and having financial security.
Delayed parenting in North America in the millennium is allowing parents to give their children social and economic opportunities that are not available to young parents.
Delayed parenting is a reality as young adults are putting their careers and financial gains over having children. According to the government data in Canada, the average age in which a woman becomes a first time mother is 29.4 years old. This figure has increased over the last 3 decades. Also, more than 50% of mothers were over the age of 30 when they gave birth in 2009. The main reasons why women today in North America delay having children is because they are requiring more education and staying in school longer. Secondly, raising children has financial expenses associated with it and couples want to have financial security before they decide to have children. Thirdly, the global economy is unstable and parents want to be able to offer their children social economic security before taking the leap into parenthood ("Indicators of Well-being in Canada ").
Kyle Rellinger
Mr.Pisano
Families in Canada 12
Monday, 16 December 2013
Children with divorced parents
As rates of divorce keep getting higher, it has a bigger effect on more children. Divorce is a judicia...
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...d more women are opting to have children later in life. With delayed marriage there seems to be greater marital stability which is very important when having and raising children, especially when the economy is unstable. Couples can look out for each other and their families and mange on one income if circumstances change in employment (Martin).
In conclusion, the trend for women to delay parenting is on the rise. More and more babies are being born to women over the age of 35. Although there are risks associated with postponing childbirth, the advantages outweigh for the most part outweigh the risks. Children born to older parents are generally better off both economically and socially as their parents have waited to advance their careers. Therefore they are more financial stable and also tend to have more stable relationships than children who have younger parents.
there is also an increase in friends placed in the voluntary kin category. The article states that people who are single or live alone think of themselves as a family. Yet studies shown that these single families tend to keep more in touch with the relatives. A statement that Dr. Coontz makes is that We’re seeing a class divide not only between the haves and the have-nots, but between the I do’s and the I do nots,”. The article also states that the way demographer noticed differences in today’s family from previous one was through the birth rates, today’s rate is about half of what it used to be in 1960. After the era of the baby boom in 1964, the rate was 36 percent, and last year the number dropped to 23.5 percent predicting a 21 percent of child births by 2050. This because less women are become mothers – yet those who are only have one or two children compared the 3 children per family in the 1970s. Another reason the articles bring up about child care is the expenses, a child can easily cost a family as little as 241,080 to about a million dollars. However, the article agrees with chapter when it states that women with a bachelor or higher wait longer to get married and have children (about 90 percent)
Teenage parents are more likely to be impoverished and mentally unstable compared to other individuals who postpone having children. Compared to adult mothers...
Around the 1950’s, the media perpetuated the idea of the picturesque family unit; children made the shift from being a necessary evil to a symbol of status. Children were no longer meant to help sustain the family, so much as meant to be trophies of the parents’ competentness. Children became an outlet for parents to mold and live through vicariously: the more perfect your child was, the better parent you were. The problem is not that people want to have children, but that many cannot afford to take care of their spawn. Whether you are a young mother utilizing the assistance of government programs such as WIC or simply writing off your children on your taxes, you are making use of government incentive to procreate. Reproduction is completely natural; however, once backed by government incentive, the motivations for having children can take an unnatural turn. Children may be a symbol of love and unity, but it has expanded beyond the family unit. Many children have become the responsibility of the Unite...
The author indicates that along with positive feelings and thoughts about parenthood, there is a degree of anxiety about the changes this life experience will bring about. Chodorow (2003) also supports this concept of ambivalence. The author describes how a constellation of fantasies and defenses that are unconscious, can delay childbearing. Women, who use feminism or career-based reasons for delaying motherhood, do so based upon their psychic realities and the behaviors these realities have generated. Anxiety around uncertainty of roles, career delays, and how the quality of significant relationships in their lives will be affected by the arrival of a child, can unconsciously lead to a delay in preparing for motherhood (Wischmann, 2003). Women feel that the struggles they are experiencing with becoming a mother and those who may be hurt in the process (spouse and/or other family members) is their
A woman has the right to consider many options of dealing with unplanned pregnancies that may be a final burden they don’t want to take on during a time of hardship. Many women and young teens get pregnant at a time in their lives when they are still maturing and would rather terminate a pregnancy because they feel they are not ready for the added responsibility that a baby brings and want to continue getting an education with ease instead of the stresses of having to juggling on to many responsibilities all at once. “Being a single parent may interrupt careers and the ability to earn wages if complication occurs to take care of the household bills.” (Lowen, 2014). Because we live in a society that judges and places status on people some young mothers avoid becoming young single mothers of not having to deal with parental disapproval. “Lately abortions have been on the decline since the introduction of long-term contraceptives like intrauterine devices and may be also the recent recession and the economy's unpredictability.” (Eckholm, 2014). Thanks to adoption agencies instead of aborting...
Oddly enough, though some may disagree, teen pregnancy may had some surprising benefits for young mothers. For girls from the poorest neighborhoods becoming a mama during the teen years may actually help said teen girls choose a path that veers away from delinquency and drugs (Ophilia).
Mothers go through all sorts of stress. While parenting can be overwhelmingly stressful, it’s important to consider the possible implications of our actions and how our responses to situations can affect how our children feel physically and mentally. Recent research (2014) has investigated some aspects of how a mother’s physical response to a stressful situation could effect her infant. Knowing that infants can indirectly pick up a mother’s personal reaction can keep a mother aware of her actions and ultimately provide better care for the infant.
Divorce is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, significantly affecting children’s well-being. It radically changes their future, causing detrimental effects. According to (Julio Cáceres-Delpiano and Eugenio Giolito, 2008) nearly 50% of marriages end with divorce. 90% of children who lived in the USA in the 1960s stayed with their own biological parents, whereas today it makes up only 40% (Hetherington, E. Mavis, and Margaret Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Such an unfavorable problem has been increasing, because in 1969, the California State Legislature changed the divorce laws, where spouses could leave without providing cause (Child Study Center, 2001).
Divorce should be harder to obtain due to the effect that it has on children the main effect it has on the children is depression. “ In the short term divorce is always troublesome for children Mavis Hetherington videotaped and scrutinized the workings of 1400 divorced families since the early 1970’s. Hetherington pinpoints a crisis period of about two years in the immediate aftermath of separation when the adults, preoccupied with their own lives, typically takes their eye off parenting just when their children are reeling from loss and feeling bewildered” (Hethrington 2). This article states that the short term effect of divorce affects the kid deep because they feel that they lost one forever and in those 1400 many of the kids felt the effect of the divorce. “Wallerstein has told us that divorce abruptly ends kids’ childhood, filling it with loneliness and worry about their parents, and hurting them prematurely and recklessly into adolescence. (Wallerstein 2).” This later affects the kids life because they try to think of happy memories they had but really all they can think about is the parent that they loss due to the divorce. “Contrary to the popular perceptions, the alternative to most divorces is not life in a war zone. Though more than 50 percent of all marriages currently end in divorce, experts tell us that only about 15 percent of all unions involve high levels of conflict. In the vast number of divorces, then, there is no gross strife or violence that could warp a youngster’s childhood. The majority of marital break-ups are driven by a quest for greener grass—and in these cases the children will almost always be worse off. (Zinsmeister 2)” this proves to me that when people get a divorce they most of the time don’t ...
The argument over how divorce affects children is one that has been going on for a very long time. Some people believe when parents get a divorce the children are not affected at all, while others believe when parents get a divorce the children are affected by the impact of divorce more than anyone in the family. In some cases, married couples can be in such a terrible marriage that divorce can in no way be avoided, and these divorces are usually the ones that children benefit from and are affected in a positive way. Many times though, a couple will choose to get a divorce because their marriage is not exactly the way it used to be, and they want that aspect of life back; these are the divorces that negatively affect children. Even though in some cases divorce does not affect children negatively, many times when parents obtain a divorce, the children are negatively harmed in many different ways that will forever change their lives.
Adolescent childbearing has become a prominent social issue because of the broad social and personal consequences. Babies born to teen mothers are at increased risk of developing physical, social, and cognitive problems and deficiencies. Teenage mothers are at increased risk for pre-term labor and premature childbirth. They are also at increased risk of pregnancy complications, infant physical disability, and low birth weight. In many cases prenatal medical care is frequently delayed or inadequately delivered.
Cnattingius, Sven, et al. "Delayed childbearing and risk of adverse perinatal outcome: a population-based study." Jama 268.7 (1992): 886-890.
A contributing factor to this, according to Mary Brinton, sociology professor at Harvard University, is that women continue to balance family with the demand of work and being available all the time (Gender Inequality and Women in the Workplace, 2016). As a result, women take on a “second shift” when they get home from work and in choosing to progress professionally many are having less children or waiting longer to have children. There seems to be a correlation between gender equality at home and the workplace with lower birth
Although the rate of teenage pregnancy in the U.S. has declined 22 percent since 1991, it is still happening at an alarming rate. Close to one million girls between the ages of 13-19 get pregnant each year. Some may use the argument that the female reproductive system is at its prime health at around 16 years of age. That fact cannot be refuted, but is that really a good enough reason to encourage adolescents to become parents before they are emotionally and financially ready? Each year the federal government spends close to $40 billion in order to help families that result from teenage pregnancies. (The British Medical Journal) These young mothers are usually living at or below the federal poverty level, and are offered government assistance
Adults seeking divorce often overlook the impact on their children’s well-being. The affects prior to divorce and after are far reaching. Depending on how negatively a child is affected, divorce can ultimately have negative consequences from childhood continuing through adulthood (Whitehead, 1997, p.99-98).