Lindsay Mitchell gets to the root of the problem of child abuse:
… the incidence of Harm Standard physical abuse was significantly lower for children living with two married biological parents compared to children living in all other conditions. An estimated 1.9 per 1,000 children living with two married biological parents suffered Harm Standard physical abuse, compared to 5.9 or more per 1,000 children in other circumstances. In addition, children whose single parent had an unmarried, live–in partner were at significantly higher risk of Harm Standard physical abuse (19.5 children per 1,000)…
This is not an indictment on everyone whose marriage fails.
Some children will have safer more stable homes with one parent than they had with both.
But that doesn’t change the statistics which show that children with one parent are more likely to be abused and those whose parent has a live-in partner are in even greater danger.
This is something that people have known for years – this is why we have marriage in the first place!
And the people who have been degrading this institution for years, Governments pandering to feminists and homosexuals to weaken the institution have a lot to answer for.
So for example when a media celebrity leaves her husband and children to marry her girlfriend we should not be congratulating the “happy couple” in the media we should be heaping scorn,derision and contempt upon them because they are undermining the very institution that is designed to keep children safe and to nurture them into useful citizens.
Andrei – I agree with you about the importance of marriage but don’t think homosexuality has anything to do with the problem of abuse.
I know same-sex couples whose relationship is happier and more stable than some marriages.
I can’t remember any cases of abuse which reached the media where the abuser was gay.
Ele, I also can’t recall a single case involving a gay abuser.
But to both you and Andrei, the importance of marriage eludes me. My partner and I have been together for 18 years, bringing up a son (would that be a bastard to you Andrei) in a loving, supportive environment, the exact opposite of which we were reared in. In both our cases, married parents yes, total dysfunction, abuse yes.
I’m not convinced a piece of paper with a couple of signatures on is the answer?
Ele, you miss the point.
Any negative social indicator you care to think of is highly correlated with children who have grown up in non intact families.
Therefore in functioning societies ways have been found to strongly bond ,b>men with women in order to raise the new generations – this we call <b.marriage and in days of yore it was a very very serious undertaking.
Now our elites in their wisdom have spent the last forty years weakening the bonds between men and women we call marriage.
Thus no fault divorce which actually means marriage means less because it is easy to walk away from – it is cheapened
And applying the same laws to cohabiting couples after two years degrades it further – makes it worth even less
And the final straw in breaking the camels back is to allow un natural marriage between members of the same sex thus breaking the linkage between marriage’s fundamental purpose, the procreation and nurturing of the young and the fairy tale and they all lived happily ever after in wedded bliss version.
In Church marriages (not the protestants because most of them have sold out to left wing secularism) Marriage is a one time proposition for life – it is a very serious and solemn undertaking unlike the banalifications of “Victorian Stem Punk weddings” which are just cultural trash and part of the Western world’s slide into perdition.
Child abuse as we see it now is an ever growing problem, it is not declining despite the ever increasing resources thrown it and it wont, it will continue to grow because leftists will never admit the damage they have done but will continue to double down on their failed policies and ideas.
I also can’t recall a single case involving a gay abuser.
There is a shocker of a case in the US at the moment involving an Australian male “married” to an American male whose six year old son via surrogate was a star in kiddie porn.
Gay fathers arrested over alleged child sexual exploitation of their son
@ Suz your relationship as you describe it is in my view a “marriage” but among the general population there have been many assaults on the sanctity of a committed relationship as a haven for growing children.
Lindsay makes a very valid point using the stats for those children being damaged or killed in broken relationships and the resulting chaotic dysfunctional environment.
Nearly all fatal assaults on toddlers involve a person other than a biological parent as the perp.
That they are also identified as ‘Maori’ has its roots in the welfare trap nightmare.
@ Gravedodger…I’m in total agreement with you re: the stats…my point trying to be that not all non-married couples, be they straight/gay can be used as a tool for religion-based zealots to blame our shameful number of abused kids at our door-step. Funnily enough, my son came home at about the age of 8, having argued with a teacher of his at Primary school, that his mum and dad weren’t married. The woman in question knew both of us well, i.e. being involved in school trips, camps, cake stalls etc, and told him he was wrong??!!
Suz – on an individual basis the piece of paper doesn’t make a difference – some marriages fail, some partnerships prevail. You have personal experience of bad marriages and a good partnership.
But the stats show that children in homes with married parents are less likely to be abused.
So is that your answer Ele, tying the knot (please seek out idiot “celebs” whose marriages sometimes last for a matter of days, not weeks)…There are deeper issues here, irresepective of the joke that marriage has become…How about we just all strive to love our offspring to the best of our ability, disregarding our own often fucked up parents, and try to do the best we can..a sentiment I know you’d agree with
Suz, Of course tying the knot isn’t the answer. I suspect what the stats highlight is that more people drift into relationships, especially once they have children with other people, than drift into marriage and it is these where there isn’t much commitment where the danger to children is greater.
The stats don’t show that every marriage works and provides a stable home for children nor that every non-married partnership doesn’t.
I definitely agree that we should all strive to not just love our children but do all we can to ensure we give them the best possible start in life and on-going love and support once they’re independent. I was blessed with parents who loved each other and their children and I try hard to be as loving and supportive as they were.
Your children are fortunate to have parents that do that in spite of the role models you had.
Suz,
I know a smoker who is 92 years old and still smoking, that doesn’t mean smoking is good for you. Not being married worked out for you and yours well good for you but as a rule it is not so positive for people – particularly the poor!
And idiot celebrities have a lot to answer for when it comes to the degradation of the institution of marriage = but for celebrities ink in newsprint about them is their raison d’etre.sad pitiable creatures they be.
Marriage is the cornerstone of civil society because not only does it provide for the raising of succeeding generations, it also provides a purpose and a place in society for all – no matter how poor they be materially and how dreary their jobs are. Why do you think it is that immigrants do the scullion jobs while the native poor are on the dole?
If you have a family or aspire to having one you have a stake in society but if you don’t and particularly you are at the bottom the chances are high that you will have no vested interest in society at all.
The damage has been done and when our society comes under pressure it will fail because there are two generations of boys in particular for whom there is no compelling reason to do anything to try and preserve it, Believe me this is true
Cultures that build strong families prosper while those that don’t eventually fail and disappear.
Christianity which has survived 2000 years is family oriented while Mithraism which was more popular 2000 years ago and which was not family oriented has not a single devotee today – this remains true whether or not you are a Believer.
The most important economic activity of all is the raising of children but the selfish, self absorbed elites have forgotten this in their self indulgences and smashed the institution best fitted for the purpose to pander their vanities – And I hold them in utter contempt for this as will history
Andrei…your comment that “Cultures that build strong families prosper”, I couldn’t agree more with..I guess our differences lie in what that entails..i.e. religion or common human decency.
Both my partner and I grew up in abject poverty, although now would be considered educated and financially “well-off”, and probably statistically, are in the minority given our up-bringing.
Ele, as well as yourself I’m thinking, were blessed with better circumstances…but please don’t write off all of those who don’t fit into your tight box…it would appear God loves even us Atheists!
Oh Suz, your ideas of common human decency are modified Christianity with God written out – I know you wont believe that but if you were to have been born in Saudi Arabia say and to take an extreme example your ideas of common human decency would be entirely different – not that you’ld be able to express them.
Secondly everybody has religion, even atheists whose statement of faith that there is no god is just that a statement of faith, like the Nicene Creed is a statement of faith.
And everybody needs ritual to express important things, thus Helen Clark takes a Maori whatchamacallit to bless New Zealand house when it is opened – in the old days it would have been a Bishop – she used multiculturalism as cover as it often is in these enlightened times to replace the old Christian rituals.
It is part of being a human being to mark things with ritual, that’s why Christian wedding ceremonies are replaced with things like “Victorian Steam Punk Weddings” for the vast majority of people something has to go there
And here is secular ritualism writ large – which apart from being extremely shallow and tacky it is also the hijacking of mankind’s natural religious instinct for political purpose – which is extremely scary if you recall recent history
Suz – I don’t have a tight box and am not writing anyone off.
I was quoting stats which show where the risk is greater but they also show that most children aren’t abused.