Thursday, February 24, 2005
Exposing the dark side of the family
Social Development Minister Steve Maharey has told the new Families Commission not to "romanticise" families. Opening the commission's Auckland office yesterday, he said many families were "not great places to be". "There are huge issues around abuse that we as a society ought to be ashamed of," he said. "Those statistics are issues we have to confront."
What Mr Maharey consistently refuses to confront is the research that overwhelmingly shows that the two-parent married family is, on average, the best environment for both the parents and the children. This does not mean that all married families are perfect -- far from it. But in general they do better in just about every way you can measure.
In the meantime, the government promotes the fantasy that family form does not matter, and that you can call anything family, and everybody will be hunky-dory.
Social Development Minister Steve Maharey has told the new Families Commission not to "romanticise" families. Opening the commission's Auckland office yesterday, he said many families were "not great places to be". "There are huge issues around abuse that we as a society ought to be ashamed of," he said. "Those statistics are issues we have to confront."
What Mr Maharey consistently refuses to confront is the research that overwhelmingly shows that the two-parent married family is, on average, the best environment for both the parents and the children. This does not mean that all married families are perfect -- far from it. But in general they do better in just about every way you can measure.
In the meantime, the government promotes the fantasy that family form does not matter, and that you can call anything family, and everybody will be hunky-dory.
