Daly Focus Blog
Earlier this week we aired a broadcast dealing with a difficult and sensitive issue: how can a man and woman who are divorced co-parent their children successfully?
It can be a challenging issue to navigate. We know God’s heart is for marriage and divorce is outside His intent. That’s why we encourage couples in crisis to do everything they can to work out differences through prayer, counseling and community support.
However, the reality remains that sometimes, divorce happens.
Scientists love to study how happy parents are (or aren’t). Year after year, news outlets report on the topic, touting studies that they say either find how unhappy parents are, or how much satisfaction and “positive emotion” children bring to their parents’ lives.
Here are some samples of the findings on this topic – as you’ll see, there’s a wide array of results.
A 2007 Pew report found children are still vital to adult happiness.
Fox News describe how “parents report significantly higher levels of depression than non-parents”
Research in the journal Psychological Science found that overall, “parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do non-parents.”
The Wall Street Journal reports “every additional child makes parents 1.3 percentage points less likely to be ‘very happy’”
Andrew Hess is one of our staff researchers, and he recently attempted to make sense of these findings.
By now you’ve heard that pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren returned to the pulpit this past Sunday for the first time since his son’s suicide in April.
Matthew Warren, 27, struggled with mental illness since childhood. According to the Warrens, Matthew received the best medical care and counseling available. He had good days and very bad ones, but it was unpredictable and naturally very difficult. In the midst of this decades-long ordeal, the Warrens led and built up a church congregation of over ten thousand people.
Sometimes it’s the littlest things we do that speak the loudest.
Take my colleague, Glenn Stanton. Glenn heads up our family formation studies. He’s the quintessential researcher, citing studies on marriage and family, speaking at universities, and engaging with experts across the political and ideological spectrum.
A few months ago, Glenn invited Jonathan Rauch, a well-known advocate of gay marriage, to speak to the staff at Focus on the Family. This was a good time for people on two different sides of an important issue to meet, share their views, respectfully challenge each other’s assertions, and walk away better informed about the complexities that surround this issue.
A video of Dustin Hoffman has gone viral. In it, the acclaimed actor shares the real reason why he agreed to star in the 1982 hit, “Tootsie,” a film about a man who dressed up as a woman to get more work.
Turns out Hoffman wasn’t motivated by money or fame or some political interest. Rather, he was motivated by what he saw in his own heart.
As the film’s make-up team prepared Hoffman for the film, the actor realized he didn’t make for a very attractive woman.
It’s difficult to turn on the TV or visit online news sites without getting an update about the “royal baby” or seeing footage of the beaming parents introducing their son to the world. Joy and optimism are written across their faces. Like any new parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will undoubtedly spend many long moments gazing at their son and marveling at every perfect detail. Jean and I have so many fond memories of studying the perfect faces of Trent and Troy when they were first born.
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a rather provocative column on marriage and advice-giving, linking the practice to lower marital satisfaction rates. Here’s the crux of the findings:
In a series of six studies that followed 100 couples for the first seven years of marriage, researchers at the University of Iowa found that both husbands and wives feel lower marital satisfaction when they are given too much advice from a spouse, as opposed to too little.
Do you remember Elizabeth Smart? Her story certainly broke my heart. In 2002, she was kidnapped from her own bedroom in Utah and held captive for nine months. During that time, Smart, then 14, was repeatedly raped by her captor.
Smart was recently part of a panel at an event on human trafficking at Johns Hopkins University where she shared her story. When explaining why she didn’t try to escape, she said it went beyond fear, and shared this experience:
“I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about abstinence.
Here at Focus, we’ve long promoted the idea that married couples thrive when they take the time to go on a regular “date night.” Yes, that’s right – in the middle of our fast-paced lives and parenting craziness, husband and wives should put in the effort to plan a time together to talk and connect outside of the normal routine.
For most married couples, it’s not easy to go on dates regularly. For some, it’s hard to justify the expense.
Usually commercials for cereal are pretty run-of-the-mill, but there’s one that recently generated a lot of conversation, and even some controversy. The ad for Cheerios features an adorable little girl, her mom and her dad. Take a look:
That’s right: the noise around this seemingly innocuous commercial centers on the fact that the little girl is biracial, with a white mom and a black dad.
I know racism still exists, but I am still surprised that there were so many hateful remarks connected to the ad on YouTube that Cheerios was forced to turn off the comments section.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.