Ruth Institute Blog

As a very experienced daddy, let me let you in on a little secret.  Having a bunch of little kids running around your house is often a bit of a drag.  Occasionally, having the kids around is quite a lot of a drag.  And occasionally the kids’ll warm your heart.  But as parents become more experienced, they probably can’t help noticing that business of the kids being a drag.

They’re a lot of responsibility.  They make a huge mess and they wear on your nerves.  Moreover, if you are a caring parent, you spend a great deal of time and money maximizing your children’s ability to be productive citizens.  Yet you will likely see none of the benefit of their productivity.

Knowing the above, it is no surprise that survey evidence has found that parents are less happy than similarly situated non parents.

The cliché refers to newborn children as “bundles of joy,” but recent research indicates that bundles of anxiety, or even bundles of depression, might be more accurate.

Sociologists are discovering that children may not make parents happier and that childless adults, contrary to popular stereotypes, may often be more contented than people with kids.

Parents “definitely experienced more depression,” says Robin Simon, a sociologist at Florida State University who has studied data on parenting.

By presenting these truths, I am not advocating that people forgo having children.  Quite the contrary.  The fact remains that society needs people to have children in order to survive and in order to prosper.

Do not take any of the above as discouragement for having kids.  Take it as fair warning.  And then go out, get married and have kids.  We need a few good mommies and a few good daddies.  Actually, more than a few.

Given the importance of children, and the importance of maximizing the productivity of those children and the difficulties involved in achieving the above, it is imperative that we strengthen the institution of marriage.

Follow me here as I lay out the steps.

• Children are essential for society.
• The only type of human pairing that is capable of producing children is one of a man and a woman.
• Raising children is hard.
• For the long term well being of children, mothers are extremely important.
• For the long term well being of children, fathers are extremely important.
• Given the above, it is imperative that society have an institution that unites men and women together so that they will have children.
• Given the above, it is imperative that society have an institution that ensures that men and women will be connected to one another for the long term so that they will maximize the productivity of their current and future children.
• Given the above, it is imperative that society encourage its members to join that institution of marriage bestowing prestige upon that institution.
• The assaults of the Left upon the institution of marriage, which have been ongoing since the days of Rousseau must be stopped or rolled back.  These assaults include the denigration of the institution of marriage, no-fault divorce, and the redefinition of marriage to include parties other than one man and one woman.

We, at the Ruth Institute hold these truths to be self-evident.  It’s a wonder that the above is anything other than blindingly obvious to everybody.  But given the centuries long campaign of the Left, it is often necessary to state the obvious.