My fellow parents, I've got bad news: we're officially outnumbered.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced this week that those of us with kids under eighteen living at home is at the lowest number in a decade.
Until the mid-1980s, we were the largest sector of the American population, but the numbers are dipping as baby boomers' kids age out (not necessarily MOVING out) and fertility rates steadily decline. At the latest count, the census counted twenty-five million married couples living with kids, a decline of a million from 2008. It's the lowest the number has gone since 1999.
The numbers only account for married couples - so this doesn't actually mean there are fewer children today. What about all the single parents, the parents living together without a marriage certificate (either because they don't want one or because they're gay)? In fact, the survey specifically left out same sex couples, which is another governmental snub to the non-traditional family.
It did note that of sixty-seven million opposite-sex couples living together, sixty million were married. For a racial break-down, check out the New York Times piece here.
Do you feel like a minority? Or is our family-centered culture keeping the parent power alive?
Image: MentalHealth.org
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