The Myth Of Breaking Up For The Childrens' Sake

      It occurred to me the other day that it was forty to fifty years ago we began to hear the concept of breaking up a marriage for the sake of the children. It was the result of the "enlightenment" of the 1960s, which is to say it was one of the cornerstones of the most selfish generation in history. And while there have been many destructive forces visited upon our culture resulting from the dawn of self-centeredness in the 1960s, breaking up marriages for the sake of the children, has been the most destructive.
     Study after study has shown that children who are raised in a home where their biological mother and biological father are married and co-habitating, have the best chance to succeed in life and mitigate the potential to be involved in drugs and crime. These children do not necessarily concern themselves with parents who may not have an ideal marriage, this is an excuse used by selfish parents who want to make their own lives easier. The positive effect of a relationship on a child is the one between the child and their parents, not their parents' relationship with each other. Staying together for the childrens' sake is both honorable and responsible, it is the only option available for parents who see the raising of the children they have created as their primary responsibility.
      But in this "me first" culture began in the 1960s, those who have freely created children see nothing wrong with burdening society with the selfish decision to dissolve the childrens' best chance to be productive citizens by breaking up their own unsatisfactory marriage. This is one of the main differences and lines of demarcation between pre-1960s and post-1960s generations, the ability and willingness to place importance and prioity on something larger than one's own selfish desires. The idea that a marriage, "just wasn't working for me", and therefore I am going to uproot my childrens' lives by making it harder for them to receive the stability and guidance they need to succeed, is something pre-1960s generations would not have even considered.
     Of course I acknowledge that divorce can be the best thing for children, who as a result of a crumbling marriage between their uncivil parents, must suffer an environment of abuse. But the extreme is not the norm for today's parents, who simply can not mitigate their selfish desire to call it quits because it just takes too much effort to be adults for the sake of raising their children in the best possible environment. And so, to lighten the load of not only the responsibility to their children, but of their consciences, they say they are breaking up their marriage for the benefit of their children. As if children somehow benefit from the example set by part-time parents that it is okay to "follow your heart" away from your commitments in order to have "me time." It is the myth of breaking up for the childrens' sake that allows the selfish to fool themselves into thinking that their children will profit from an abandoned marriage and two glaring examples of selfishness.