Stephanie Coontz Quotes

More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers.

You do need parental guidance and I was in a great position with both my mum and dad. They split when I was a baby but even though I stayed with my mom they were both very much involved in my upbringing.

I have the greatest respect for single parents who struggle and sacrifice, trying against almost superhuman odds to hold the family together. They should be honored and helped in their heroic efforts. But any mother's or father's task is much easier where there are two functioning parents in the home.

I think people need to commit to one another before they commit to bringing children into the world because that's the optimum arrangement for children, not to take anything at all away from women who have to rear their children by themselves.

I've got two families.

I have gone from one relationship to a marriage and stepchildren.

I don't want to raise a child by myself. I could do it. But I definitely don't want to. I want to be a mother who has the original father there.

My parents were divorced when I was three, and both my father and mother moved back into the homes of their parents. I spent the school year with my mother, and the summers with my dad.

That thing, 'You must stay together for the kids', is out of fashion but is right. It's not arguing parents that children don't like, it is having one parent.

My parents split up when I was 3 years old, and I lived with my mother.

It is obvious that the role of the father as the central authority in the family has been considerably challenged in Western societies. Parental responsibilities, and I knowingly use the term responsibility instead of the term authority still used in the French Civil code, are nowadays shared equally between both parents.

Having two families is just natural to me. I guess when you're growing up, whatever is happening around you is the natural thing.

Second marriages can and do create 'real' families.

My parents got divorced, and they both remarried other people.

My parents are not together, but they were both always around.

I think that for a child to be in a household... with a situation where the parents are not married, as in being one man and one woman, is not the best household for a child.

Keeping your ex close took three people who were willing to be incredibly generous, grown-up and mature. I give enormous credit to Michael and Len for the way they've handled things. As a result, I have an amazing child with three great parents. I feel slightly sorry for kids who've got only two!

Being from a divorced family almost felt like a scarlet letter at times. And I denied it for a long time.

Ive spent my whole life working in a medium that was regarded with contempt largely because of historical reasons.

I used to look at gay men and think, 'I'm not like that, I don't want to be like that, that's not me.'

It’s funny – my married friends tell me all the time, 'What you have is so much easier.' When you’re doing it on your own, you don't have to [argue over] how you're raising the kids.

I think husbands and wives should live in separate houses. If there's enough money, the children should live in a third.

We are seeing it. We are seeing the fabric of this country fall apart, and it’s falling apart because of single moms.

At least be a nice lesbian or you're going to give the rest a bad rap.

So many times we're portrayed in ways that we don't want to be portrayed, in ways that make us seem so ridiculous.