Crumbling families

Mercatornet has an interesting piece on the demise of the nuclear family.

People used to lament the advent of the nuclear family because it heralded the death of the extended family. Now, according to Britain’s top family court judge, we should applaud the death of the married mum, dad and kids family norm as it dies of neglect before our eyes.

Sir James Munby, president of the High Court’s family division, is very familiar with what he calls the “complexity” of family life these days. To simplify things, he told a university audience last week, we should forget about things like marital status or who exactly a child’s parents are, and welcome the new “reality” of people living together, married or unmarried, of opposite sexes or the same, monogamous or not.

Steven Meyer •

Whenever I see one of these “Ain’t if awful” pieces the question that comes to my mind is “What do you suggest we do about it?”

For good or ill, norms of behviour are changing. So what should be done?

I do not see how there is any choice but to accommodate to the changes.