Marriage Should Not Be the Elephant in the Room
Making the case for two parents is a good starting point, but we would connect the dots to add that the largest benefits come from being married. If the two-parent ideal matters, marriage is the support that helps two different people stick together to do that. This is because marriage is a legal and social institution with a certain set of norms and expectations that increases the likelihood of relationship trust, happiness, and longevity. In other words, marriage is a kind of social technology. Or, as The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson puts it, marriage is like “social fitness.” Without marriage, the two-parent ideal becomes less achievable and less durable, and parents become more lonely and less happy.
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