One Family Director Karen Kiernan was responding this morning on WLR and yesterday on Today FM’s ‘Last Word’, Newstalk and Spin 103.8 to a piece in the Irish Independent where Bishop of Elphin Christopher Jones said “the greatest good” would “come ultimately from the family in marriage” and that many children from broken homes are born “losers”. Karen was also speaking up for one-parent families after some media reports unfairly scapegoated single parents as being somehow responsible for the London riots.
Karen said, ‘The language used in some of these articles can be really hurtful to people who are doing a great job, often under difficult circumstances, parenting alone or sharing parenting. It can also be really hurtful to their children. We obviously don’t agree. Children do best in families where they are loved and supported – that can be a family with one parent or a family where there are two, or even three, parents involved in the child’s life. The real issue in all of this is the need for family support. Children do well in families where parents are in a position to parent well, be they married or not. That’s what makes the difference.’
