It Takes a Family

Rick Santorum uses Dr. Wade Horn’s metaphor to show how a traditional marriage where both parents live in the same household is better in comparison to a child who has grown up in a single-parent household. The families that have both a mother and a father in the same home provide for a “safe destination” whereas the families that have a single parent only “land safely” part of the time, but not as successfully as the first.

Throughout the essay Santorum uses statistics. He stated, “In one study of more than 6,000 young men ages 14 to 22, it was found that boy show grew up without a married mother and father were more than twice as likely to end up in jail as boys who did.” He is implying that families with a mother and father figure provide for a better healthier family and it is less likely for the child to get into any kind of trouble. Research has been done to show that a healthy family is one that is more likely to support one another and the kids will do well. Santorum goes on to state, “Marriage matters because children matter. Without marriage, children suffer, there is simply no better investment parents can make in their children’s future than a healthy marriage.” Therefore children who have grown up in a single-parent home have a future that may or may not be good, which is why Rick Santorum suggests that we should always choose the first plane because even though both planes offer good odds, having a mother and father in the same home provides the family with more success.