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Marriage is a durable conjugal union between a man and a woman that serves good f children and the good of spouses too. It is a permanent lifelong union between one man and one woman encompassing total commitment of fidelity and complete sharing. On the other hand cohabitation is an arrangement where two people who not married live together in an intimate relationship. It has limited, ambiguous commitment, without clear, binding obligations. It’s usually of a temporary nature. Cohabitation has the following impact; * Child abuse.
Children whose parent’s are cohabiting are more likely to be abused than children living with their married natural parent’s. Children living with their mother and a cohabitate who is not the child’s father can be abused mentally, physically or sexually as the cohabitate does not put in mind the child’s welfare. * Sexual behavior. Cohabiting does not involve commitment therefore an individual may have more than one sexual partner these increases chances of being infected with the sexually transmitted diseases such as HIVE/AIDS.
Unlike in marriage where commitment to each other is involved and have only one sexual partner there are no or less chances of getting sexually transmitted diseases. Such sexual behavior may lead to moral degradation in children as they ill emulate what they see their parent’s doing and therefore these may lead to promiscuity. * Divorce. Individuals cohabiting are more likely to end up in divorce after marriage. This is because in cohabiting, the commitment factor lacks, therefore one is free to walk away once the relationship is not to their liking.
This therefore leads to an unstable marriage once the individuals get married. * Abortions. Cohabiting women are more likely to have an abortion than married women. This is because in cohabitation, the basic needs and resources are limited; therefore once a on-married woman gets pregnant they will be unable to cater for the needs of the child therefore opting to abort it. Len addition, the pregnant woman may be rejected by her partner; therefore in fear of rejection she may abort the child.
This affects the society in that the aborted children could have ended up being very productive members in the society. Cohabiting should therefore not be accepted in our society as it affects the individuals and the children involved in the long run. QUESTION THREE Divorce or separation is a life-transforming experience. Childhood is different. Adolescence is different. Adulthood, with the decision to marry or not and have children or not is also different. Whether the outcome is good or bad, the whole trajectory of an individual’s life is profoundly altered by this experience.
Children are developing physically, socially, emotionally, educationally, morally, and spiritually and Lover or separation can detect canceller In can AT tense developmental areas . Nines are clearly seen in our society today. * Rejection between parent’s increases the risk that children will suffer from psychological and behavioral problems. Troubled children are particularly likely to develop problems with anger, disobedience, and rule violations. School achievement also can suffer. Other children become sad for prolonged periods of time.
They may become depressed, anxious, or become perhaps overly responsible kids who end up caring for their parent’s instead of getting cared for by them. This is visible in our country today as most criminals are from poor family backgrounds where their parent’s are either divorced or separated. * Children who experience the divorce or separation of their parent’s generally are ore likely to struggle socially compared to children from intact families. They are more likely to be aggressive, have poorer relationships with same-age children, and have fewer close friends.
These children and teenagers appear to be less involved in extracurricular activities, such as sports or music, and other enrichment programs, such as after-school classes or summer programs. This is likely due to less money to pay for such activities, less availability of parent’s to drive the child and attend lessons and events, more frequent moves, and visiting and custody schedules that interrupt participation in class and in team sports and other activities. * Parenting behavior.
The quality of parenting children from divorced or separated families receive is probably the most important factor. Children especially teenagers in Kenya today who experience the divorce of their parent’s may end up getting less prenatal supervision. As a result, these children may be more susceptible to the influence of their peers and this increases the chances of them getting involved in deviant behavior, including drug and alcohol use and smoking. * Academic performance ay suffer if a child is experiencing stress or acting rebelliously as a result of prenatal separation and divorce.
Parent’s may be less able to carefully monitor the child’s performance in school because they may have less time and energy to devote to their children. In addition, divorced parent’s are less able to afford materials for their children that may facilitate academic success. More financial strains may also force families to live in neighborhoods in which school programs are poorly financed and services are inadequate. * During the separation or divorce period, children ay end up having a wrong perspective about marriage as they are not taught the importance of relationships especially marriage by their parent’s.
Due to the divorce or separation, parent’s will not have enough time to monitor their children; children will not understand how conjugal love is to be administered in a marriage and therefore will lack value their relationships with others thus may lead to promiscuity. This explains the increase in the spread of HIVE/AIDS especially among teenagers in Kenya today. * Children of divorce, in general, seem to have less commitment to he ideal of lifelong marriage than children from intact marriages.
Experiencing their parent’s ‘divorce tends to undermine their faith in marital permanence so they are more likely to leave an unsatisfying relationship than hang in and try to improve it. In addition, children of divorce have greater difficulty trusting people, including a spouse. Perhaps for these reasons, children of divorce are more likely to live with a boyfriend or girlfriend before making a decision to marry. However, living together before marriage, or cohabiting, is not an effective way to increase your odds of success In marriage, Ana It may even Increase ten chances AT eventual Lover.
In conclusion parent’s should consider how children might feel about their current marriage and how aware they may be of their marital problems, how your children’s daily lives might change because of separation and divorce, the emotions their children might feel, the personal characteristics of their children that may affect how well they adjust to a separation. QUESTION SEVEN Like the divorce scenario, children whose parent’s are married but always busy also get affected in the long run.
Children whose parent’s are ever busy may not necessarily suffer from physical poverty but will suffer from moral poverty. Since the parent’s have no time for the children, they lack to instill values upon their children in turn these children will look for guidance from other people who may mislead them. * Parent’s who have no time for their children send them to boarding schools or to stay with other relatives in order to escape from their prenatal roles. These affect the child’s behavior in that; in school they mix up with other children from different backgrounds and may acquire bad behavioral habits.
Children whose parent’s are always busy and have no time for them feel rejected and lonely as the parent’s show no interest for them. These may lead the child to easily fall into peer pressure, use of illegal drugs and alcohol and may view these things as a source of comfort. * Children whose parent’s have no time for them may perform poorly in academics. This is because the parent’s lack time to follow up on their children’s academic progress since they are busy working therefore; the children lack support and motivation from their parent’s to work harder once they perform poorly.
Parent’s who are ever busy do don’t find time to monitor their child’s welfare and health as they are busy making money. The child’s health will deteriorate with time as the parent’s may have traveled far away from home and with lack of communication they will not know their child’s health. Parent’s should get involved in the lives of their children as it later may affect the moral and behavioral sphere of these children. They should put in mind that how they bring up their children affect the society as it is passed from one generation to the next generation.