A New Trend in Motherhood?

Or, if there’s a problem, it’s time to redefine “problem.” At least, that’s what this piece from the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” blog suggests:

The recently released study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points out that the birthrate for unmarried women has risen to 40 percent and is highest among Hispanic women—climbing 20 percent between 2002 and 2006. While this data is worth noting and signals a need for policymakers and advocates to reexamine our family-centered policies, we shouldn’t present single motherhood as a problem in itself.

It’s always nice, too, to see Corinne Maier—remember her? 40 Good Reasons Not to Have Kids? That Corinne Maier—weighing in on single motherhood.

It’s no coincidence that celebrity tabloids devote more ink to stars who give birth or adopt than to those who marry or remake their lives.

The child is thus the center of everything — perhaps too much so.

The situation makes one think of the famous line by the French writer Andre Gide in 1897: “Families, I hate you.” Would its modern version be “Kids are hell”?

Yeah . . . that’s exactly what I thought of . . .