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Oh, Boy Americans still prefer sons As he has for the past 60 years, "Junior" still reigns when it comes to Americans' preferences for a son or daughter. When the Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing recently asked Americans whether they would prefer a boy or a girl if they could have only one child, 38 percent say they would prefer a boy, 28 percent say a girl, and 27 percent say it would make no difference. A plurality of men prefer sons, and have expressed this preference in all past Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing surveys on this question. In the July 2003 poll, 45 percent of American males say they would prefer to have a boy, compared with just 19 percent who would want their only child to be a girl, and 29 percent who say it wouldn't matter. Rick Fair, professor of economics at Rider University in New Jersey and father of two - one boy and one girl - admits he had a "primal longing" for a boy the first time around. "I'm the last of the males in my family," he said, "and I wanted the family name to continue. And I think that boys are easier to raise because they can 'handle themselves,' while fathers tend to worry more about all the bad things that can happen to 'daddy's little girl.'" Women, however, are more evenly divided in their choices between a son and a daughter. Thirty-six percent prefer to have a girl, 32 percent would want to have a boy, and 26 percent say either sex would be fine. Younger people are more likely to yearn for sons than those in other age groups. Nearly half of all Americans (48 percent) between the ages of 18 and 29 say they would prefer to have a son, while 29 percent prefer a girl and 18 percent say it does not matter. Americans between the ages of 30 and 49 also show a preference for boys (41 percent) over girls (29 percent), but with 25 percent not expressing a preference. Regardless of whether they have a boy or a girl, the majority of Americans (86 percent) in their prime child-rearing years who have not had children say that they want to someday. Findings are based on telephone interviews with 1,003 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted July 18-20 by the Gallup Poll. Pledge at Risk Readers asked to respond to Pledge of Allegiance OC Family Magazine is asking its readers to respond online regarding their feelings about whether or not the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. We will run some of those responses in our January and, if need be, February issues. Here is some explanation: The Supreme Court a few weeks ago agreed to hear the case next year about whether the phrase "one nation under God" will remain a part of the oath that has long been a staple of public schools. Opponents say changing any words is tantamount to amending the Gettysburg Address, or the Declaration of Independence, or the "In God We Trust" that is emblazoned on coins because of a phrase that offends some Americans. Proponents of the change argue that the phrase creates a religious forum within a public setting, which violates the principle of separation of church and state. A California atheist, who objected to his 9-year-old daughter having to hear the Pledge of Allegiance, filed suit. It has worked its way through the court system. An online report from AOL notes that some 9.6 million schoolchildren recite the pledge daily in the western states alone. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the oath cannot be mandatory. The court has banned school-sponsored prayer from classrooms. For comment on this issue, please write, with name, city of residence and contact phone number (we do not publish phone numbers) to our website, and hit the Feedback button: ocfamily.com. The Kid Factor Marriage 'satisfaction' decreases with children When the kiddos come along, the marriage changes. In many cases, for the worse, according to a study by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge. Apparently, it is the lack of control over one's life and the loss of the previous lifestyle that hits parents hardest when they welcome baby. The study also reports that diminished marital bliss due to children is far greater among the wealthy than among middle to low-income parents. Wealthier couples tend to experience the loss of freedom and social activities more than middle-income couples who may not have had as much to lose when the kids arrived. Interestingly, those who became parents during the last decade experience twice the drop in marital satisfaction as those couples who started families in the 1960s and '70s. Research also showed that mothers with infants were significantly less satisfied with their marriages than women without children. The study emphasizes: "The message isn't 'Don't have kids,' it's, 'Don't have kids to try to improve your marriage.'" Homework Lite Study says one thing, but our research hints at another Students are doing less homework, not more, says a new study by the Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank. But an informal survey of more than a dozen of parents by OC Family Magazine shows that this simply is not true. At least not in the household where the goal is a four-year college and a well-paying job. The weakness of The Brookings' study is that, in tracking all students, it includes those who bring down the average for several reasons: They are poor students, they have no college aspirations or future goals, they have little parental oversight, or in fact they are doing significant amounts of homework but doing so in small bites each night. They also might not be counting homework done at school, such as in a homework club. "It's a hard thing to measure," says one of our parents with three children ages 11-15. The Brookings' study notes that most students ages 9, 13 and 17 have less than an hour of homework a night. Research was gleaned from data from the U.S. Education Department and research by UCLA and University of Michigan, among others. Our own survey of some 20 students ages 9-17 showed that only the very youngest had less than an hour's homework each night along with one senior in high school who has completed most of his requirements. Most were 90 minute to two hours. While school districts vary in what is required, according to Peter Gorman, superintendent of Tustin Unified: "We have eight principles for developing a homework plan (such as meaningful assignments, reflecting the curriculum). I've never had an issue where someone specifically said that there's not enough, though sometimes I have had the opposite where they say it is too much." In Orange County, for example, test scores tend to be higher than the national mean. And even at schools where they are not most parents carefully oversee their children because college is the goal. According to Brookings, the share of students assigned more than an hour of homework has dropped for all three age groups since 1984. Additionally, only about 10 percent of high school students do a substantial amount of homework, meaning more than two hours a night, according to a separate study by the RAND Corp. Most Orange County school districts now advise parents about the amount of homework their students should expect to shoulder each weeknight. The workload typically increases with fourth-graders and begins to crescendo in middle school. The Brookings' study was released, among other places, on AOL. |
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