Do children need two parents?

I'm very glad that you said some children are raised only by a mom or" only a dad". As a lot of people only think about single mums and not single dads. There are a lot of single dads out there bringing children up on there own and doing just as well as the single mums and these dads sometimes get pushed to the side as a lot of people only think about single mums.

Exactly! But after separation both parents should remain equally important and equally involved in their children's lives. it is a criminal shame that we have a 'winner takes all' system in the UK, which means that one parent normally the mother ends up as primary carer with all the benefits and tax credits the other parent normally the father ends up with very little contact and is persecuted by the father's tax. When divorcing it is normal to split everything equally, why not time with the children too?

Of course this is a factor. This is why it makes no sense for the UK government to continue to presume that the mother is automatically the better parent and primary carer 'just because she is female' it obviously depends on the people concerned.

Well that is my presumption as all the laws and rights concerning children are vested in one parent, normally the mother, particularly if the parents are unmarried. it is an absurd system and is fundamentally undermining the future for our children. it is not surprising to me that Britain was recently identified as the worst country in the western world for bringing up children.

Agreed - and you raise another interesting point - the biggest damage to a child is the animosity between the parents. I see this in court battles over divorce and custody (known as residence in UK). The longer these battles go on the worse the children suffer. Separating parents need to consider the effect on the child of their actions. The worst effect is known as parental alienation syndrome - where the primary carer normally the mother poisons the mind fo the child against the other parent, normally the father. It leads to kids being turned against their fathers and refusing to see them - brainwashed by poisonous mothers - unfortuantely there is rarely any punsihment for this form of child abuse and the UK courts are extremely reluctant to even accept it is happening! It is also true - failure of our children will depend on how we raise them'. I agree. The most important job we do in this world is bringing up the children - if we do it well they grow up to be law-abiding, decent, honest, self-motivated,w ell balanced members of society. if we do it wrong they end up in prison!

Well it takes two to make a baby and it takes two to bring it up properly. In reality, the nature of the parent's legal relationship is of little consequence to a baby that simply wants and needs both aprents around all the time. The issue of marriage is interesting as married couples stay together significantly longer on average than unmarried couples, even when babies are involved. Whether it is because of the commitment given or the difficulty of ending the marriage is not clear, but the evidence suggests that they last longer and hence are better on every score than unmarried couples.

Well done - of course - you might be the exception that proves the rule? The evidence is overwhelming that children brought up by single parents (normally mothers) are significantly more likely to get into trouble and/or do worse at school. Something like 90% of prisoners have little or no contact with their father. It is well known that children from 'deprived' areas do worse at school and are less likely to go to university. Actually - these 'deprived' areas are measured by benefit dependency - single mothers for example are significantly less likely to work - after all why shuld they when the benefit system in the UK takes away 85p of their beneit for every pound that they earn. You are correct about the problems of two parent families when both parents work - you cannot delegate the job of being a parent to an underqualified person who is doing it for the money. The children suffer that way as well - or even when sent to boarding school. The best way and what most two parent families do is only one parent works so the other is around most of the time. That is the better way. The best way of course is where there are lots of adults around - aunts, uncles grandparents siblings etc - you should never be outnumbered byc hildren as they become competitive.