"Marriage-Plus"

Wow! That's all I can really even begin to say with article that I have "Marriage-Plus".  I’m not really sure how I feel about this article.  I myself have recently became a single parent also along with this was a teenage mother when I became pregnant.  I agree that married couples with children have it a lot easier then single parents trying to make it on their own.  I don’t think a marriage initiative is the way to keep families together; it’s almost like a bribe to stay with someone.  When you’re with someone, I was with my daughter’s father for 7 years and you just try to make it work with the emotions that are flying through the house the child is more affected then when you’re doing it alone.  I think marriage is an option to everyone; I think most people rush into it without thinking and just want to be like everyone around them.  I won’t lie I want to get married just like all my friends are, but I also don’t want my marriage to end in divorce like my mother’s did.  I seen how hard it was for her to struggle raising me on her own, my father never ever gave support or even wanted to see me.  I myself find it crazy that people are getting married at so young of an age.  I think that there wouldn’t be so many single parent houses maybe if there wasn’t an income tax break for those single parents.  So people have children just so they can have more money at tax time, which those people don’t want to get married to their significant other, why would they want too? 

            I am lucky enough to have my daughter’s father in her life as much as possible, but with the times as rough as they are; he doesn’t have a job and isn’t giving me child support, but I don’t think that is affecting my daughter’s life because at least he is still involved. 
            I don’t agree with the welfare benefits that are offered to families that are together.  I know when Shane and I were together and he didn’t have a job but I did we had such a hard time making it, and yet the state still wouldn’t help us because we made to much money; how can you make to much money when you can’t live off the income that’s coming into the home.  Now that I’m single I find it amusing that I can get all the help I can with just my daughter and myself, and I couldn’t previously just because there was one additional person in our family. 
            I think for people who want to get married there isn’t enough guidance out there to help them keep their marriage “alive” or even enough information out there to help them through a rough time.  I think everyone who is wanting to get married should have to go through maybe a Catholic test (they have a class the couple must take together and a test and if they don’t pass the priest will not marry them).