So so so many times does the question come up in the black community...Why is it becoming increasingly difficult to find families where both parents are still together?
I think that generally, its a matter of shifts in priority
In one aspect, you have couples who bear children out of wedlock and think nothing of it, because thats what society has grown to silently promote...its social acceptance is almost mistaken for social encouragement...the notion having both parents with the child becomes watered down with the infamous "i don't need him/her" or even "he/she isn't right for my child" or anything along those lines....Thats not to say that the phrases aren't absolutely correct from time to time...But there used to be a time where the situation wouldn't even get to that point to raise such a discussion....
Then you have those who are single parents because it really was the right thing to do....for example in abusive relationships, marriages that just stopped working, etc...Where the previous priority shift was from marriage being #1 to taking care of just me and my child becoming #1, in this situation....there was a time where spouses wouldn't dare divorce for the super-high reverence of marriage or for the sake of the children....this could prove unhealthy...but today, where it is proven that people can survive without being married, this allowed priorities to shift from marriage being #1, to health and sanity taking top spot....
The thing is, we perhaps may realize as we get older why people marry and what it is all about, even down to its spiritual meaning...But as kids, we didn't...so then why should our own?...how could our own if we can't show them ourselves....the process becomes its own perpetual machine...and we only are left to hope that they learn what is what soon enough....
They need to know that is is far more than a simple lisence certificate....