Introduction
Marriage institution has been facing dire challenges since the onset of the twentieth century. This is highly attributed to changing lifestyles. As values in the society go through myriad changes, many people tend to consider marriage optional. Many who get into the institution have no plan of staying therein for their lifetime. Despite the negative sentiments among stakeholder concerning marriage, it is an institution that is imperative in the society. Divorce is not the solution to challenges in marriage since it results in poverty, instability and unstable environment for children.
Poverty
Personal analysis shows that marriage institution helps partners to garner resources. This is both material and financial resources. In many marriages, there is the sharing of responsibilities like payment of house rent, electricity bills and general upkeep of family members. This sharing helps families to save for the future. It also makes it easy for families to invest the savings in viable ventures. This results in a situation where there is financial stability within such families.
It is notable that better decisions concerning financial management are mostly made in marriage set up due to prior analysis by spouses. This leads to better spending. On the other hand, divorce leads to a situation where one partner stays with children. In most cases, the mother is given custody of children.
In some cases, both parents may be given custody of some children. This means that each parent has to pay his own house rent, electricity bills and hospital bills among other expenditures. In most cases, the funds are never sufficient in sustaining the family and thus no saving. In some cases, one partner may not be working hence financial struggles. Personal analysis shows that due to this situation, some children are usually left to the streets to fend for themselves. Some single parents opt to move to the streets and poverty creeps in the family. In the long run, the families are not able to have necessities such as food shelter and clothing. This shows that marriage should be sustained to minimise poverty that emanates from divorce.
Unstable environment for children
Marriage set up is mostly known for giving children a highly stable environment for growth. This is where they have both paternal and maternal love. The children are also able to get discipline from both parents. This usually leads to emotional stability in their adulthood. They are able to learn from both parents on how to handle opposite sex in their adulthood.
On the other hand, divorce results in situations where only one parent takes care of children. This leads to children lacking maternal or paternal love; this is an unstable environment for children. They lack guidance from one or even both parties. It is extremely challenging for a single parent to instill discipline in children hence immorality and substance abuse among other vices creep in the family.
Financial struggles in single parenthood are inevitable and sometimes children in these families may not complete their education hence failure to achieve their dreams. Most children in divorced families are likely to go through abuse that is physical, sexual or emotional. Divorce leads to unstable environment for children. This explains why marriage institution should be guarded against divorce at all cost.
Instability
The above factors, clearly show, that divorce results in family instability. Family health becomes unstable as parents may have multiple sexual partners leading to diseases like HIV Aids and sexually transmitted diseases. Children’s health may not be adequately handled due to insufficient funds. Emotional instability among parents and children is inevitable as divorce is quite stressing to all. Social instability is common as children tend to have poor social skills which are easily learned within marriage. Divorce is usually known to lead to financial instability in the family as one party may not be capable to handle all necessary expenditures. Single parenthood due to divorce leads to poor living standards and street children hence overall instability.
Kipnis’ claims vs. personal assertion
Kipnis’ article differs from views in this paper since she majors on sex as the major reason for marriage. This paper however, looks at the repercussions of divorce such as instability, poverty and unstable environment for children. She views marriage as a place where one is usually forced to do things for the other person. This is however not the case as love within marriage wants to have the other person happy too.
Conclusion
In conclusion, marriage institution should be guarded by all stakeholders. Divorce is not the solution to marital challenges. It leads to poverty, instability and unstable environment for growth of children. In the long run, there are many street families, emotionally and socially unstable people in the society. It is therefore, clear that marriage should be defended at whatever cost since divorce leads to more problems that can be avoided.