What parent wants their children to grow up to be single parents or their grandchildren deprived married mothers and fathers? Today, only 46 percent of children are currently living in families with their mothers and fathers in first marriages.
Under the guise of anti-bullying and diversity education, children are being taught in many schools that diversity of family types is a good thing. Sounds good, until you consider the one common thing for what is described as "alternative families"1 is children deprived of married mothers and fathers. How can this be a good thing? I have had good Catholic parents tell me their daughters have said, “Mom, why do I need to marry? I don’t have to be married to have children.”
Young children know reality about marriage and family. Start early to reinforce that in them. Here is one way to explain the fullness of marriage to a child, including teenagers:
In reality, marriage is when a man and woman choose to make themselves irreplaceable to each other. That is what prepares them to receive children as persons of equal value to them. Because in reality, the child is irreplaceable to the mom and dad and the mom and dad are irreplaceable to the child. Marriage starts the circle of irreplaceability we call the family.
By the way, this explanation of marriage works for receiving children as a gift from the couple’s own union or by adoption.
1The term "alternative family" is a lie. It may be an alternative for adults but for children it is a misfortune. The reality term to use instead of "alternative family" is an "irregular family." A family built on the foundation of marriage is a regular family and any family without the children's mom and dad united in marriage can be called an irregular family. It is a neutral term.