This is something American conservatism is still wrestling with. A lot of people by default have the attitude of, "You want to get married and have a family? Stop whining and go work 80+ hours a week and climb the company ladder and have 5 side hustles till you make enough to pay your basic bills." Marriage and children are a basic part …
This is something American conservatism is still wrestling with. A lot of people by default have the attitude of, "You want to get married and have a family? Stop whining and go work 80+ hours a week and climb the company ladder and have 5 side hustles till you make enough to pay your basic bills." Marriage and children are a basic part of God's created order and the foundation of society, yet they've been relegated to a "reward" of sorts for a select handful of high-performing people who figure out how to outperform the vast majority. At least, that's how a lot of people implicitly talk.
Stable family formation for average folks is vital for the perpetuation of society. This needs to be discussed much more within conservatism before there is nothing left to conserve.
I agree that stable family formation for average people is vital for society. I’m slowly becoming resigned to the fact that what our children (8 of them, teenagers down to a one-year-old) will have to deal with economically will be different from and likely harder than what we dealt with in the early years of our marriage. And my husband and I are Gen X and old Millennial, so we did the whole live-on-nothing-to-pay-off-student-debt thing for the first 13 years of our marriage. I agree that things should certainly change in our culture. I suppose I’m both 1) not optimistic that much will change in the next decade or two in favor of stable family development for most people and 2) if it’s important enough for young people to form families, they will do so, even though it’s hard. I just had a conversation with my oldest about this, and hopefully we’ll keep talking about it.
We must encourage our churches and communities to be and behave local. Employ each other, live nearby each other, be social, don’t hesitate to have a strong in group preference.
God bless your family - a large family is where it starts, especially if you can stay in close proximity to each other when the kids start getting married and having their own families.
Thank you! Yes, the local support is crucial. May God in Christ bless our church families and interactions so we can build and continue this for ourselves and our posterity.
This is something American conservatism is still wrestling with. A lot of people by default have the attitude of, "You want to get married and have a family? Stop whining and go work 80+ hours a week and climb the company ladder and have 5 side hustles till you make enough to pay your basic bills." Marriage and children are a basic part of God's created order and the foundation of society, yet they've been relegated to a "reward" of sorts for a select handful of high-performing people who figure out how to outperform the vast majority. At least, that's how a lot of people implicitly talk.
Stable family formation for average folks is vital for the perpetuation of society. This needs to be discussed much more within conservatism before there is nothing left to conserve.
I agree that stable family formation for average people is vital for society. I’m slowly becoming resigned to the fact that what our children (8 of them, teenagers down to a one-year-old) will have to deal with economically will be different from and likely harder than what we dealt with in the early years of our marriage. And my husband and I are Gen X and old Millennial, so we did the whole live-on-nothing-to-pay-off-student-debt thing for the first 13 years of our marriage. I agree that things should certainly change in our culture. I suppose I’m both 1) not optimistic that much will change in the next decade or two in favor of stable family development for most people and 2) if it’s important enough for young people to form families, they will do so, even though it’s hard. I just had a conversation with my oldest about this, and hopefully we’ll keep talking about it.
We must encourage our churches and communities to be and behave local. Employ each other, live nearby each other, be social, don’t hesitate to have a strong in group preference.
God bless your family - a large family is where it starts, especially if you can stay in close proximity to each other when the kids start getting married and having their own families.
Thank you! Yes, the local support is crucial. May God in Christ bless our church families and interactions so we can build and continue this for ourselves and our posterity.