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Family relationship sociology
Child growth and development
Child growth and development
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Relationships of married couples gradually evolve over time, and certain couples believe that having children may enhance their marriage. Some couples hastily jump in to having children without any thought or preparation; others wait long months or years before deciding to have children. As one anonymous author stated, “A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.” Although, children bring joy, the quality of a marriage may decrease due to the amount of attention children require, financial support needed and the difference of opinion couples may have about how to raise their child.
Talking through and agreeing upon having children are the first most important steps to succeeding in parenthood and marriage. Joy and unity are obtained by many couples who are well prepared for the dramatic transformation that comes with having a child. Through watching their child take their first step to their child’s Kindergarten graduation, parents experience a joy that cannot be found anywhere else. Parents also get to enjoy their child’s first lost tooth, seeing the look on their child’s face when they get their driver’s license and seeing their son or daughter get married among many other joyful moments. Couples who already have a strong relationship will be better prepared for the change that evolves when children arrive.
First of all, children require a lot of time and attention from their father and mother therefore, the close interactions between couples are limited. This may cause couples to grow more distant from each other. Their responsibilities change overnight and they do not just care for thems...
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...n and how it affects their marriages. Jumping hastily in to having a child could lead to marital dissatisfaction.
Works Cited
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Jonat, Rachel. The Minimalist Mom's Guide to Baby's First Year: How to create time, space and money. CreateSpace Independent Publishing , 2011. e-book.
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Stabile, Mark and Sara Allin. "Future of Children." The Economic Costs of Childhood Disability (2012): Volume 22. Web. 2013.
Wang, Wendy. Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends. 8 October 2013. Web. 10 December 2013.
In Wade F. Horn’s article “Promoting Marriage as a Means of Promoting Fatherhood,” Horn discusses how having a child and being married is better for children because the father is more involved in the child’s life. Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas’s “Unmarried with Children,” on the other hand, takes the reader through Jen’s story about getting pregnant at a young age and deciding not to marry the father of her son. While both sources make appeals to emotion, reason, and character, Edin and Kefalas’s article makes more successful appeals and thus is the stronger argument.
Pregnancy can be very socially challenging as one's previous life changes drastically with the arrival of the child. Most women wish to become a positive role model for the child and try to change their social and financial life
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...
Firstly, for selfish reasons, the article states that although raising a child may be expensive and difficult, it will be the most rewarding thing for the couple. It gives the example of holding a newborn baby in your arms and having love for them. This does not include mothers that do not feel anything for their children right after they are born. The article does not consider the mothers that may have trouble bonding with their child immediately or at all. Another reason for having children is the desire your family to continue. This reason might not be a priority for everyone. Having a successor may not be important for every
In this time where science makes dreams feasible, and what years ago was saw to be difficult, now is promising, for this reason is okay and respectable when a traditional married couple try different methods to become parents. There are many treatments to solve this issue, such as in vitro fertilization, use of hormones, and the most new and revolutionary; ‘shop a gamete or baby’ the same as you shop for a car or a house; you can pick the color of the eyes, the color of the hair and the physique you want. Inside out is important to mention, all these treatments are not entirely effective. So what happens when all the resources are exhausted? The possibility to adopt a child who needs a family can be one of the best options, and the most valued accomplishment for this married couple. Scott Simon says “Many couples pay tens of thousands of dollars for rounds of medical wizardry instead of adopting children who are already among us, crying for our love and support” (The case for Adoption, par. 2). In America and other countries, the number of children waiting for the opportunity to be adopted by a family is immense; these children are waiting for someone to rescue them, hoping for love and safety before it is too late for them.
Children should be seen as blessing from God, and god should decide when a couple
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
Girgis, George, & Anderson (2011) define marriage as the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally (inherently) fulfilled by bearing and rearing children together. These marriages are intended to last eternity and are partially accomplished by raising children together, yet four of every ten marriages lead to divorce and of these divorces, 35% involve children (Ambert, 2009). Children tend to blame themselves for the divorce and are usually caught in the crossfire. These divorces lead to both stress and depression for children and without a strong sense of family, children will have a huge disadvantage over children with a stable healthy family (Arreola, Hartounian, Kurges, Maultasch, & Retana, 2013). Without the ability to cope with the stress of a divorce, children can be effected in multiple ways including a change in mentality, unacceptable behavioural traits and both short and long term emotional factors that will ultimately lead to a critical issue in child development.
Transition to parenthood is one of the most demanding and increasingly complex life experiences that sets a couple’s future relationship trajectory for determining the quality and stability of their relationship (Kluwer, 2010). The infant’s arrival requires the couple to adjust not only to daily baby care chores but also to the new roles of parents, often leaving the interpersonal relationship between husband and wife to a low priority. The prevailing majority of scholarship describe different levels of decline in the quality of marital relationship postpartum (Wallace & Gotlib, 1990; Helms-Erikson, 2001; Twenge, Campbell, & Foster, 2003; Mitnick, Heyman, & Smith Slep, 2009; Kluwer, 2010; Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010). At the same time, some scholarship explains how couples have more joy, happiness and a sense of fulfillment in life because of the baby (Petch & Halford, 2008; Nelson et al., 2013), while other findings report identical levels of marital happiness before and after birth of the baby (Amato et al., 2003). A genuine controversy lies in whether a decrease or increase of couple happiness takes place at transition to parenthood. During this transitioning process, new sets of tasks challenge the couples to act in new roles and adjust their daily routines, behavior, and relationship. When the couples experience less relationship distress in completing the transition tasks, they have a higher potential to create a positive context for raising an emotionally and physically healthy child and less chances for divorce. Because divorce has negative lasting effects on descendants for the next three generations, including lower education attainment, lower income, higher relationship distress, and higher chances...
They do not allow the children to express how they feel, and the children are constantly cleaning up after and taking care of their parents. As long as they please their parents, the children feel happy. Serious family problems can cause confusion. Everyone has mixed feelings, which causes them to lose confidence in the family or themselves. As fear, guilt, blame, and low self-esteem take hold, codependency begins.
Whether planned or unplanned, change can cause disruption to one’s stable environment if not handled in the correct way (McGarry, Cashin, & Fowler, 2012). Having children was a positive planned change for me. The decision has greatly improved my well-being and outlook on life. My thought process was changed the instant I held my first child. From that point on, every decision I make is centered on how it will affect them. Motherhood has opened my eyes to the realization that change occurs every day and there is no halting the process. As I watch my children grow, I emotionally embrace each unforeseen moment that comes with it.
November 13, 2013. “Increasing Options and Improving Provision for Children with Special Educational Needs. (SEN).” Gov. UK. Copyright 2018 Crown.
Marriage is no longer taken seriously; commitment and monogamy are no longer an essential ingredient. For most couples today, it’s not even considered a part of marriage. The negative effects that divorce has on children should be the number one consideration when a couple hits that hard time in their relationship. Children are psychologically and socially affected by divorce and may need counseling either at the time of their parent’s divorce or in the future. They may react instantly by getting lower grades or becoming depressed or anxious.
One of the most common arguments is that aged parents are more likely to have a stable living and financial situation. The main reason is they want to educate their children with high class education. When parents are working in a well-established career, they can concentrate more on their children. In many cases, they have already committed to each other, and they could be cooperating to give proper guidance to their children. However, studies have shown that there are greater risks of health complications on mothers who wait longer to have children; it is possible to increase the chance of a delivering preterm or a low birth weight babies. For instance, after age 40, the rate of the physical complications is higher to carry an unborn baby, including diabetes and high blood pressure. Moreover, psychologists are worried about the possibility of another factor that could be ignored; the characteristic making bette...
Murray, Linda, Anna McGrail, and Daphne Metland. The Baby Center Essential Guide ToYour Baby's First Year. N.p.: Holtzbrinck, 2007. 185-88. Print.