Have you ever known of a husband and a wife whom never cheated on one another, never abused one another, yet after a while, couldn't stand each other, to the point of divorcing? Republican Iowa State Representative Ted Grassman wants to make that illegal. Unless a person could prove his or her spouse had committed some kind of a crime, had committed adultery, or had abandoned the family, it'd be illegal for that person to successfully file for divorce.
With regard to wanting to make "no-fault divorce" illegal, Grassman said the following:
"This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home. I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation."
He then got personal when he talked about his daughter and son-in-law recently divorcing and the effect it will have on his granddaughter, saying:
"There's a 16-year old girl in this whole mix now. Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous? What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into?"
No, divorce isn't the ideal situation in which to place a child. However, neither is an unhappy marriage. Whether the husband or wife is or isn't being faithful is really of no relevance if the couple is miserable being together. This misery can have serious impacts on a child's overall mental and emotional health. The optimal situation for a child would be to be raised by two parents whom are relatively happy and love one another. However, if that is no longer feasible for a couple, wouldn't it be a better situation for a child to be raised by two happy separated parents than by miserable parents whom remained with one another because they felt it was best for their child?
As far as the insinuation that divorce leads to promiscuity among the parents' children, I don't believe the link is strong enough to be of significance. Young women resort to promiscuous lifestyles often times because they long for love, attention, affection, and acceptance which they don't receive by one or both parents at home. Once again, would a young woman be more prone to promiscuity if her parents divorced, but were happy, as well as loving and supportive of her or if they remained with one another, miserable, arguing too frequently to really show her the love and support she needed? Again, while the ideal situation for her would be if the parents stayed together and were happy, loving, and supportive, I think it's quite naive to suggest she'd be better off constantly being around parents whom hated one another more with every passing day than if they divorced and were much more content, loving, and supportive as a result.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/05/1670841/no-fault-divorce-promiscuity/
With regard to wanting to make "no-fault divorce" illegal, Grassman said the following:
"This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home. I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation."
He then got personal when he talked about his daughter and son-in-law recently divorcing and the effect it will have on his granddaughter, saying:
"There's a 16-year old girl in this whole mix now. Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous? What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into?"
No, divorce isn't the ideal situation in which to place a child. However, neither is an unhappy marriage. Whether the husband or wife is or isn't being faithful is really of no relevance if the couple is miserable being together. This misery can have serious impacts on a child's overall mental and emotional health. The optimal situation for a child would be to be raised by two parents whom are relatively happy and love one another. However, if that is no longer feasible for a couple, wouldn't it be a better situation for a child to be raised by two happy separated parents than by miserable parents whom remained with one another because they felt it was best for their child?
As far as the insinuation that divorce leads to promiscuity among the parents' children, I don't believe the link is strong enough to be of significance. Young women resort to promiscuous lifestyles often times because they long for love, attention, affection, and acceptance which they don't receive by one or both parents at home. Once again, would a young woman be more prone to promiscuity if her parents divorced, but were happy, as well as loving and supportive of her or if they remained with one another, miserable, arguing too frequently to really show her the love and support she needed? Again, while the ideal situation for her would be if the parents stayed together and were happy, loving, and supportive, I think it's quite naive to suggest she'd be better off constantly being around parents whom hated one another more with every passing day than if they divorced and were much more content, loving, and supportive as a result.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/05/1670841/no-fault-divorce-promiscuity/
I live in Iowa, and I'm ashamed when I hear about people in my state trying to pull things like this.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it's ridiculous he thought it was okay to speculate about his own granddaughter's possible promiscuity in the future. Seriously, did this clown have to drag her into this? Not only does she have to deal with the divorce, now she's been dragged through the mud by her own grandfather who's concerned about scoring political points.
Second of all, he clearly doesn't understand why some marriages fall apart. I agree that it's worse for a child to grow up in a miserable home with parents that can't stand each other.
If he had his way, we'd be America, the land where you're free to live miserably because our idea of morality and what's best for everyone will be imposed on you regardless of how you feel about it.
Excellent point about the granddaughter. It really is despicable when a politician drags a family member into a debate in an attempt to score political points, especially a child or grandchild.
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine the granddaughter's thoughts when she heard/hears about this:
"Wait...does this mean since mommy and daddy broke up, I'm going to be... What's promiscuous mean anyway? ::looks it up:: I'm going to be easy now? Just like Dirty Mary? ::cries and calls grandpa::"
Yeah, stay classy, Ted Grassman...