What is the ideal family? When I was growing up, it was Dad at work and Mom and kids at home. To some that may still be the ideal. The reality is quite different.
A new Pew Research Center analysis of census data reveals four in 10 American households with children under 18 now include a mother who is either the sole or primary wage-earner for her family. This share is the highest on record and has quadrupled since 1960.
Part of this is the recession where more women needed to find work because husbands had lost jobs, or to supplement income in a struggling economy. Part of it is also the rise of single mothers who are raising children alone. And part is due to the cultural breakdown, including abortion, which has deprived our country of more than 50 million human beings.
One thing is clear: so-called "traditional values" no longer apply in America. Oh, they do for those who practice them because they still work. But politically and culturally, they are becoming as extinct as a dinosaur. No politician or movement is going to bring them back. That will take a revival.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Publication date: May 31, 2013
