Your Parents are Married?

A couple days ago my kids were telling my husband and me about some neighbor children they were playing basketball with. They were asking all the usual questions...and then some not so usual ones. These two neighbor kids live with their mother, who lives with her boyfriend who is not the kid's father. So ok, that's not at all uncommon in this day and age. Sad, but it's actually pretty common. What really freaked me out was the question these two kids asked my girls.

"So your parents are married?"

My kids automatically and emphatically nodded and said "Uh-huh!"

But then I really freaked out at the reaction to that answer. The other two children looked at each other, their features creased with surprise, and said, "That's really weird."

HUH? What is weird about a family where Mom and Dad are married?

So I asked my kids, "Did you tell them that your parents are married, and have been for over 17 years? And that they were both (gasp) VIRGINS (gasp) when they got married?"

My husband gave a humorless chuckle and said, "We wouldn't want to kill those poor kids with that kind of a scare, now would we?"

So what is wrong with this picture? It's bad enough that I must conceed that it's very common to have broken homes, to have a mom living with a man who is neither her husband nor the father of her kids. But when children find it odd that someone's parents actually ARE married? That's just too sad for words.

We are worried about the sanctity of marriage because gays want to be legally married. Well, that's another sad statement, when those who cannot marry are fighting for the right, and those who have nothing hindering them from tying the knot, fight not to. And fight to get out of it when they have taken that step. We've got it all wrong. (Before anyone thinks I'm supporting gay marriage, I'm not. I believe in the Bible's view of marriage--between one man and one woman. It was just a comparison.)

I get so irritated at the way marriage is viewed in our society. Of course, I blame the media (ooo...my favorite villain to pick on! **grin**) for its negative portrayal of marriage. But I don't blame the media alone. Hollywood only keeps spitting out what it thinks America wants to see.

Maybe we should tell those pudding heads that we're tired of their liberal agenda that's brainwashing our children so they can't seem to know what's up and what's down. What's good and what's bad. Ah well...I do miss Mayberry.