From The United Families International: Myth Busters Monday

I found this article very interesting. I have always been unsure about this. It seems that society has progressed so far in the immoral direction even from when I was a kid, but you hear the opposite all the time. Everyone says grandma was sleeping around before she got married. Though I found it hard to believe, I had no way of disproving it. So here are a few good statistics on the topic of cohabitation and babies born out of wedlock.

Myth Buster Monday: Throughout history, high rates of pre-marital sex and unwed childbearing have been the norm, not the exception

In Abstinence, Cohabitation, Families, Marriage, Myth Buster on May 9, 2011 at 10:20 pm

Did great-great-grandma have a robust sex life prior to marriage?  According to some academics, she did.  There are many academics and those who wish to influence public policy who insist that high rates of pre-marital sex, cohabitation and children born out-of-wedlock is not something new and thus should not be feared or identified as a societal problem.  They argue that there were high rates of illegitimacy and cohabitation in the first half of the 20th century — and earlier centuries – and insist that the high marriage rates, traditional families, and the “Leave it to Beaver” life-style of the 1950s and early 1960s is the historical aberration.
So what’s the straight story?
Some of the best record keeping comes to us from Britain and is compiled in a study done by The Center for Social Justice and chronicled in their work “History and Family:  Setting the Records Straight.”
Here are a few statistics that shed light on the question:

• Only 3.8 percent of those who married before 1945 reported having cohabited before marriage, compared to 6 percent of those who married between 1945 and 1954 and 14.6 percent of those who married between 1955 and 1964.  By 2006, 88 percent of all couples who married in Britain had cohabited prior to marriage.
• Records of unemployment claims from the 1920s point to minimal levels of cohabitation.
• Levels of births outside marriage were the same in the 1950s as they were in the 1750s – around 5 per cent.
• By the late 1970s, the percentage of out-of-wedlock births in Britain stood just above 10 per cent, by 1991 it was 30 percent and today it is 45 percent.

What about the claim that pre-marital sex was a normal part of the courtship process for large sections of the population throughout much of the last 250 years?  Simple logic would tell you that, without modern contraception, there would have been a far greater number of children born out of wedlock if pre-marital sex had been as rampant as it is today.   We recognize that there were probably plenty of “shot-gun weddings,” but it is important to point out that, unlike today, marriages were indeed forming and the divorce rate was very low.
The advent of the contraceptive pill was a major factor in the increase of pre-marital relations.  Prior to Britain’s passage of the National Health Service Act (1967), “the vast majority of brides had not had sex prior to their wedding day.”[i]

---

[i] K. Dunnell, Family Formation 1976 (London: OPCS, 1979) and M. Schofield, The Sexual Behaviour
of Young Adults (London: Allen Lane, 1973), p. 166.

My Mother's Day

My Kate woke up early-ish (we all slept in on Sunday), and made waffles!!! I couldn't believe it. My first impulse was to stop her. I thought we were out of baking powder and I knew she did not have a recipe. Well, Kate found a recipe in one of our old recipe books and just dumped the rest of the baking powder in the bowl which happened to be enough. When she heard I was nervous she brought me one of her perfect waffles. We had a nice family breakfast and then Kate, John, and Ruth cleaned up.

Later that morning, I was showered with gifts. I got a fourth bar stool (I actually wanted that a lot),  a card from Johnny, a painting from Adam, a homemade necklace and flower hair clip from Ruth, a trip to Maggie Moos from Kate, chocolate from the little kids, and a new Temple dress from John. Then it was time to get ready and go to church.

After church, we had an easy meal and headed down to Provo to say happy mothers day to Gramma. We had a lot of fun with all of the Utah Robertson family. We were really glad we went down, even though we didn't get back until after midnight on a school night.

For Mother's Day I was planning on writing my top ten reasons I love being a Mom. But I found it really hard to come up with ten reasons that were not just trite. I love being a mother. I love watching my children play, and read and grow. Motherhood is good and hard. I like that it is both. I like to do hard things. I love my little baby's and how sweet and cuddley and good smelling and soft they are. I love, love, love reading to my kids-- young and old.  I love hanging out and talking with my older kids and playing games with my middle kids. I love shopping with them, and going places with them. Sure I have plenty of unwanted poopy diapers, excessive crying, siblings fighting, and sick children, and spills that make motherhood hard. But the bad, the hard, and the gross stuff is not what makes up the majority of my life as a mother. Most of the time, I am not drying ridiculous amounts of tears, changing diapers, refereeing fights, helping sick kids, and wiping up spills. Most of the time I am cooking, cleaning, reading, playing, talking, and feeling rather peaceful as a mother. Yes, I have those days, but I did before I was a mother too. They were just usually all my fault back then. Now, I have 8 perfect scape goats :-).When I was a little kid, I wanted to grow up to be a mom. I have been very blessed to be just that, and I love it!

Joseph Reading to Joshua

This is one of the cutest things that happens in our house on a regular basis. Joseph always gets books and reads to Joshua while Joshua is in his swing. The nice thing is, Joshua really enjoys this time with his brother.

Rachel and Anya Dance

Last night, Rachel and Anya had their first dance recital at an elementary school fair. All of the little girls were just so cute. Rachel danced her dance the entire time, but she didn't exactly stay in the place she was supposed too. Anya stayed in the place she was suppose to, but she quit dancing part way through to look at some of the older dancers practicing in the back ground. They are just darling. I can't wait to see the entire performance on stage in a few more weeks!

We had a hard time getting Rachel to smile because she wanted fair food.

Rachel's Prayer

Rachel always has the funniest prayers. Before Joshua was born, Rachel prayed that we would name the new baby, Joshua Booger. Tonight during family prayer, and last night during her bedtime prayers, Rachel pleaded in her prayer for Unicorns, Dinosaurs, and Dragons to be real. Tonight, Rachel also pleaded that summer would come soon. I hope summer does come soon, but I doubt unicorns are real.

I find It Funny

I find it funny that Ruth calls Kate a pessimist and Kate responds by saying she is a "Realist".

Our First 5K

Well, I was going to run my first 5K on Saturday, but I injured my ankle/foot. Since the race was in our neighborhood, I thought I'd try anyway-- not a good idea. Here is what happened. Ruth and Kate and their friend, Bonnie started out with me. The middle of the course, was actually our house. I knew right away that my ankle was getting worse. So, I stopped at our house after the first 1.5 miles. John caught up with the girls, and ran the other 1.5 miles. Ruth and Kate ran the whole 5K. I am proud of my little girls, and a little disappointed that I did not run the whole way, but glad in another way.

I could hardly walk the rest of the day on Saturday, and I am still having a lot of trouble. This sprain is particularly bad because the pain goes around to the bottom of my foot. Since, I walk on the bottom of my foot, every step hurts. I probably shouldn't have run at all. We are planning on doing a "whole family with strollers" 5K in May. We will see how that goes. I am taking this week off on exercise. I will need a dead line like another 5K to get me back on track after a weeks vacation. I am so bad at exercise. Hopefully my ankle/foot will be better by Friday. My job makes it impossible for me to stay down much.

In all, I think my husband is cool because when he ran the second half with the kids, he had them run real fast to beat other runners. For me, it is just, "okay, lets just go slow and steady, as long as we run the whole time."  And I think my girls are great for running their first 5K and running almost the whole way. I know that I could not run 3.2 miles when I was 11 or 13.