September 17, 2024
The Blue State Family Exodus: Families Are Migrating to Red and Purple States
You would think that Minnesota is a mecca for families, judging by the adulatory press coverage that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s family policy record in the state has received from liberal professors and pundits. Celebrating the vice presidential nominee’s moves to expand the child tax credit for poor families, advance paid family leave, and provide…
September 12, 2024
Surgeon general’s dour picture of parenthood misses the mark
Fifteen years ago, after we had adopted five children, I thought my wife and I were done having children. Boy, was I wrong. She got pregnant with twins in 2009 and, after the girls were born, I was shellshocked by the double dose of diapers, late nights and extra parenting demands — not to mention…
September 9, 2024
The Nanny State Is Not the Answer to Parents’ Challenges
The chaos of summer is over. Kids have gone back to school. But fall brings a whole new set of challenges. We parents have spent the past few weeks creating complex matrices — schedules for child care, after-school activities, and car pools. But by next week, someone will get sick, or a babysitter will quit, and…
August 22, 2024
Active Fathers Are Exacerbating the Two-Parent Privilege
Fathers today are doing more than ever. Not only are they taking on more housework—doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning—but they are more involved with child care as well. They help with homework and serve as chauffeurs, coaches and role models. Fathers with young kids spend, on average, nearly two hours a day caring for their kids. The division…
August 15, 2024
Women Want More Children Than They’re Having. America Can Do More to Help
In the wake of the media storm generated by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s comment about “childless cat ladies,” fertility in America has vaulted to the top of the national conversation, with good reason. The fertility rate has hit a record low in the United States, with the average American woman now expected to have just…
July 29, 2024
The Rise of ‘Marriage Deserts’ and What We Can Do About Them
What makes a marriage succeed or fail? To answer this question, psychologist John Gottman set up what came to be known as the “Love Lab” at the University of Washington in Seattle. Couples were invited to spend a weekend in a plush apartment with scenic views as Gottman and his team monitored their body language,…
June 18, 2024
Donald Trump is an Outlier on the Right: When It Comes to Fidelity and Marriage, Democrats Face Bigger Problems
The political and legal fallout of Donald Trump’s affair with Stormy Daniels has not only complicated his run for the presidency, but it has also raised a deeper concern: Has the Republican standard bearer’s marital misbehavior eroded our collective commitment to the values and virtues that sustain the institution of marriage? On the left, journalist…
June 13, 2024
The Family-to-Prison-or-College Pipeline: Married Fathers and Young Men’s Transition to Adulthood
A growing minority of young men are floundering. “Failure to launch” is a description that’s all too common. Consider working a stable job—a decent proxy for whether someone has their life together. For young men (ages 16-24), labor force participation rates are dropping. In 1980, the share of young men who were looking for or had a…
June 13, 2024
Why Married Fathers Matter
The eighth grade girls cleaned up at the middle school graduation I attended last week. Of the four major awards, three went to girls, and just one to a boy. This pattern is all too typical in American life today. Two-thirds of high school students in the top 10% are girls, while boys dominate the…
May 13, 2024
Do Mothers Have “Societal Support”? Does It Count if It Comes from Neighbors?
It is an annual tradition, for some reason, for folks on social media to dump all over Mother’s Day. Some on the fringe decide it’s sexist or cisnormative or something to believe only women can be mothers or that mothers are special. The abortion lobby hates the idea that womanhood is associated with motherhood. But last year, I stumbled across an anti-Mother’s…