The article “Millennials Say Marriage Ideal but Parenthood the Priority”, written by Jason Hanna and published on the CNN website on March 9, 2011 presents the facts of some of the latest researches in the area of demographic peculiarities of different generations in the United Sates. The main idea of the article is to inform the audience that family values of young Americans have significantly changed. Being motivated by economical reasons, young women under 30 believe that marriage can be postponed; however, they are not ready to postpone parenthood. During the latest research, fifty two percent of respondents indicated that one of the most important things in life is becoming good parents. Compared to the previous generations, more young ladies tend to have children with their partners out of marriage because they consider marriage an economically disadvantaged arrangement.
Nowadays, family values undergo significant changes. Marriage is no longer popular among young Americans. Young people see economical hardships in creating marriage at the early age. However, it is still believed that the joy of giving birth to a child is one of the greatest joys in life. On this reason, new generations choose to have children out of marriage. Young mothers see an attractive perspective in receiving material help from the government which is possible if they have a single status. In addition, they have a tendency to think that marriage is an unreliable arrangement guarantying no protection and stability. This is explained by modern moral values, and the crisis of marriage relationship. Different researches show that the level of divorces is bigger than ever. Facing some of the slightest problems in the marriage, young men do not strive to solve them. Instead, they try to find the very first option to exit the relations which became inconvenient for them. In addition, young men show considerable level of infidelity in marriage relationships. As a result, the institute of marriage is in its crisis today because people no longer believe that it is important for happiness. Such tendency is also explained by the fact that a considerable part of young people nowadays grew in the families with a single parent. As such young people did not see a positive example of their parent, their own idea of marriage is eroded. In addition, a considerable amount of young people experienced their parents’ divorce which became a terrible trauma for their parents and for themselves. As a result, they are not willing to subject their future children and themselves to such a serious threat. One more reason why marriage is postponed by young people for better times nowadays is explained by the fact that they came to realize that their marriage can become a possible threat to their career. They also understand that their values and goals in life are not stable yet, and will continue changing, which will lead to the loss of common goals with a marriage partner.
The situation appears to be different with parenthood. Young women continue seeing some of the greatest priorities in giving birth, and raising a decent person for the society. Considerable amount of women think that having a child is enough to satisfy their natural needs in offering their love to someone and being loved by someone. They strive very hard to offer their children the best things in life they are able to acquire. A child is often seen as a way to materialize women’s dreams. On this reason, women put a lot of efforts into raising an educated and comprehensively developed person. It is also believed that women have closer connection with their children than with their husbands. Women think that their child will always stay around to offer his or her love, and will never betray their mother. In contrast to that, women demonstrate a measure of distrust to men, and consider them unserious. Having a child is seen as rose-colored prospective promising a lot of happiness and satisfaction. Raising their children, young women feel that they invest in their future as they believe that the child will express gratitude for their hard work, love and commitment.
Concluding on all the above-discussed information, it should be stated that modern women no longer consider marriage important for their happiness. However, parenthood is still one of the most significant things in life for them. This is explained by a number of reasons such as economical disadvantages of marriage for a young couple, disloyalty that men commonly demonstrate, and crisis in family relations. Compared to previous generations, the amount of women who consider parenthood to be important is still very high. On this reason young women decide to have children with their partners out of marriage. They see a good prospective in raising their children because they believe that children are more grateful to their mothers than men who leave their wives experiencing some minor difficulties, or on the reason of some love affair outside the marriage.