Parenting Roles Like workplace roles, parenting does not come naturally. Most first-time parents muddle through by trial and error. Family sociologists often point out that we get more training for driving a car than for marriage and parenting. For example, most couples don’t realize that raising children is expensive. Middle-income couples, with an average income of $77,000 a year, spend about 16 percent of their earnings on a child during the first 2 years (see Figure 4.2). Child-rearing costs are much higher for single parents and especially for low-income families if a child is disabled, chronically ill, or needs specialized care that welfare benefits don’t cover (Lukemeyer et al. 2000; Lino and Carlson 2009).
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 15:01:27 +0000
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