Social Trends and the Family

Over the past years, research has been conducted on the current trends of marriage and family. In this post, I will like to start by mentioning some of these trends, their significance, and how they are correlated one to another. Some of the trends I will be talking about are: premarital sex, living alone, birth to unmarried women, cohabitation, delayed marriage, birth rates, household sizes, employed mothers, and divorce.

To start, I will like to emphasize the importance and effects of those trends in the family unit. The family unit, like I said in my introduction, is the most important work we do in this life. We live in a society in which family is being disintegrated and disvalued. This is one of the reasons why I am so interested in share my insights in this topic, and maybe in some way influence those who might read this to be reminder of what is most precious in life. After all, it is within the walls of our homes that we find the greatest happiness, lasting learning and enduring love.

Premarital sex has always existed, but the number has grown greatly. In my opinion, this is also a result of living alone, which statistics have also increased. We can also refer on how these two trends influence the more people delaying marriage, cohabitating, single moms, and mothers having to leave their home to go work with children younger than 6 years old. All of these trends destroy happiness. If we think about it, can we really learn from others and experience real joy in this way? I don’t think so, and I will expand on these in future blogs.

The other related trends are household sizes that has declined, which are connected to the lower birth rates, living alone, and divorce. It could be unexpected to know that the rates of divorce have not necessarily increased, but decreased, but this may be related to the less amount of people getting married and or living in cohabitation.

Now after briefly mentioning these trends I will like to talk more about birth rates. More women are delaying having children until older years, and therefore having less children. The birth rates have declined significantly. What is really appalling, is that the rate of birth now is lower than what is necessary to replace the population. Reflecting this idea in numbers, 2.13 is the average of birth rate to maintain the number of our population, the actual birth rate is of 1.8 in America. How does this negatively affect our societies? This factor affects the economy of our society, the loss of culture, and the technologies advancement. I grew up seeing my parents taking care of their parents, if you do not have children how is going to take care of you in your elderly years? What legacy are you leaving behind? The earth’s population went from 3.7 in 1969 to 7.5 in 2017. Some of the effects of this population growth, the double of people, brought much scientific advancement, less poverty, social health, increased innovation and technology.

I would like to conclude this by sharing my point of view from a religion and eternal perspective. Creating physical bodies for God’s spirit children is an important responsibility. About this President Brigham Young said “There are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty? … It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can.” Spencer W Kimball said “… You came to get for yourself a mortal body that could become perfected, immortalized, and you understood that you were to act in partnership with God in providing bodies for other spirits. … And so you will not postpone parenthood. There will be rationalists who will name numerous reasons for postponement. Of course, it will be harder to get your college degrees or your financial start with a family, but strength like yours will be undaunted in the face of difficult obstacles. Have your family as the Lord intended. Of course it is expensive, but you will find a way, and besides, it is often those children who grow up with responsibility and hardships who carry on the world’s work.” There is not a specific time we have to start having children after getting married, or a set minimum number of kids we must have. Each couple should prayerfully consider these decisions. It is my intent to remind everyone of our divine nature and destiny. Not just our personal destinies, but the destiny of each of Heavenly Father’s children. May we be obedient and accountable in bringing children into our families and obey god’s commandment of “… multiply and replenish the earth.”