I guess I can imagine that some people would consider having kids as a key component of a successful marriage, but 65% of people thought this at one time? Seems high.
Just four-in-ten (41%) Americans now say that children are very important to a successful marriage, compared with 65% of the public who felt this way as recently as 1990, according to a new Pew Social Trends survey. Yet while children may be perceived as less central to marriage, they are as important as ever to their parents. As a source of adult happiness and fulfillment, children occupy a pedestal matched only by spouses and situated well above that of jobs, career, friends, hobbies and other relatives.
I guess I wonder what “successful” means. Is it the same thing as happy? Surely happy figures in there somewhere. I guess if you see kids as an integral part of being married, then yeah, it’d follow that they’re key to marriage being a success.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m one of the six in 10 who wouldn’t call kids key to a successful marriage. I don’t think a child is the “point” of a marriage.