I Wonder How Much This Cost?

Kids do best when they are raised in homes with loving authority and faith.

I think that this is what they call a "blinding flash of the obvious."

Of course kids need structure in their life. Of course kids doing better emotionally and psychologically when they're loved. Is there really anyone out there that thinks we'd be better off if we let our kids run wild and treated them with contempt and disdain?

All that this study points out is the importance of family: biological and extended.

A loving family gives a child a sense of security. A loving family gives a child a feeling that they can try something - and it'll be ok even if they fail. A loving family gives a kid the empathy, understanding, compassion and judgment - all the social skills - that they'll need to survive in the real world.

Now maybe it's the website I found the linked article on, or maybe it's really in the study (I'm going to try to have to find an original copy. Tried googling it without success.) but there almost seems to be a "revelation" that religion can help kids to adjust better. I don't think that it's because of the religious lesson per se, but rather because the Church reinforces those same social skills - empathy, understanding, compassion, and judgment - that the immediate family teaches. And the multigenerational aspect of that reinforcement only makes it stronger.

Perhaps the influence of religion is understudied. Perhaps that would have been a better topic of study for this report. Did we honestly need a study to tell us that family is important? I'm glad to see that someone is interested in studying things that might help children, but we do we really need to reinvent the wheel?

Research money is not unlimited. What money there is needs to be spent a little more wisely, I think.